Flying with small kids can be fun--but it also can be hell. It's not really predictable how they will behave. Here's a report about a trip that went extremely well:

In the January sale I booked a bunch of WTP tickets LHR-JFK for our family of 4 including a 20 month old (without seat) and an almost 4 year old (with seat of course). The premium for WTP above WT was about £200 roundtrip which I consider to be a worthwile investment, given the extra space and BA miles. I am usually quite particular about the seats and this is were things started to get complicated. I had to book the flight on two different PNRs, me with the baby and Mrs BUFman with the 4 year old. I called BA to get our PNRs linked and they assigned 28DE and 29D (70J 747-400) to us--not great, but since 28F is another bassinett seat, it is somewhat logical that they didn't assign three seats in the bulkhead row.
When I booked the flights it would have been possible to upgrade all of us to Club, though since the kids didn't behave that well on our last TATL, I figured that we should stay in WTP since I would worry a lot more about keeping them client in Club. A day before the flight, I checked seat bucket availability: Y was freely availably down to L class, but all F, C and WTP seats were gone. On the seatmap 28F was still open, but when I try to check us in online at T-24, it was already taken--bugger.

The day arrived--we were on BA177, leaving Heathrow at 1340 and left the house in a taxi just before 1000. We life an hour and a bit from Heathrow and contrary to previous trips where we took a hire car to LHR or drove in our car, going in a taxi is certainly less stressful since they drop you right at the terminal. We booked a VW Sharan which is spacious, has enough room for luggage and built-in car seats. We were gone for 6 weeks so we had 3 suitcases, one car seat (there was another one waiting for us with family in NY), a stroller and 3 rucksacks as carry-on--a manageable amount. I asked the driver to go all the way to the end of drop of area, got one of many luggage carts on offer and loaded our luggage. We proceeded to the first class check in area and a lady walked us right over to a free counter and the check-in process began. I don't know why this is complicated, but I have never spend less than 15 minutes at check-in counter to check the 4 of us in to the US. I have also asked. I enquired if we could be seated together and the agent showed me the seatmap which was completely occupied. However, she then said she could try to phone flight management and ask them if they could do anything.

And yes--they were able to do something and a minute later we got the 29D boarding pass replaced by 28F--bingo!

We proceded through fast-track security (are the lines ever shorter than the normal lines at the southern security entrance) and headed straight to EAT one level down since everyone was hungry and Thursday. EAT also has the advantage that it is right by the front window and allows good aircraft views--in fact we were dragged there by the 4 year old.

I wasn't sure if they would allow us into the lounge. Technically we should be too many to get in on just my card, but it has worked a few times before. Anyway, I wanted to show them the cloud (art installation above the elevators) and the world clock in the South Galleries. We spend about 10 minutes observing the cloud changing which was good fun and then settled on the big chairs opposite the clock. My plan was to head another floor up to the Galleries (business class lounge), but asked the lady who's job it is to direct people to the correct lounge if it was possible to get into the Galleries F First (GF) on my Gold card [I know that some folks on the BA board deem this to be not appropriate]. She said no and I thanked her. 2 minutes later, a more senior concierge from GF approached me and invited us all to the GF! Bingo.

The GF has a kids play area next to the refectory which doesn't look like much but was well suited to keep the kids occupied. It has steel walls and a large number of magnetic shapes scattered around it which can be used to build complex shapes (by the 4 year old) or just being collected (by the baby).

I found a bottle of Bollinger La Grand Annee 1999 which set the adults into a very good mood for the flight. We left the lounge in a bit of hurry (without changing diapers) when the flight showed "boarding", unfortunately from A10, which means bus gate. At the gate my boarding pass got rejected and I was re-assigned 14A--club world. This was my first ever op-up to CW (or in fact any long haul business class)--the baby got two passes: a new one for CW and the old one for WTP, so we could choose the arrangement. Naturally, I gave the 14A seat to my wife and the baby and earned a couple of approving comments by the crew for that. I also checked with the cabin service director if it was OK to go up to CW every once in a while and he didn't have a problem with it.

The 4 year old and I now had 28 D and F with E being taken by somebody else but it was no big deal to flip seats so I got E instead of F and we could sit next to each other. Both kids got a nice Paddington Bear box (BA kids activity kits always seem to be quite good) which had crayons, a colouring book and stickers. The box is reasonably durable and proofed a useful toy later on. As my wife told me the flight went quite well in 14A and the 4 year old was very calm throughout the whole flight. He watched most of the kids TV programs, enjoyed the kids meal (pre-ordered), a few stories, etc. Unfortunately he didn't want to fall asleep. I even got to watch a movie myself which I haven't managed to do on a flight with the kids for a long time.

And here's the big mistake I made: I took the 4 year old to the bathroom a couple of times throughout the flight and asked him if he needed to go just before we landed. He said no and the mistake was that I didn't insist. Just after the fasten seatbelt signs were switched on and cabin activity had quietet down, he told me that he needed to pee. Well, I tried to convince him that he needed to wait until we were at the gate. JFK being JFK we taxied for a about 25 minutes, which means that I must have spend over have an hour to convince him that he should hold it. At the gate when the fasten seatbelt sight went off, I quickly unbuckled him, grabbed him and ran forward to the CW lav. He didn't quite manage to hold everything but about 90% went were it was supposed to go. I was so relieved, a bit angry about not being more strict with him and a bit proud that he managed to hold it for so long.

Immigration was a breeze, we only waited for one minuted, but then our priority tagged baggage arrived last (as usual with BA). Then Airtrain to Federal Circle, bus to the hotel, ordered a large pizza, had a pizza picnic on the bed and fell asleep.

From my perspective, the almost perfect trip. I am so proud that both my kids managed the flight so well.