I just wanted to update you on our travel experience. Overall, my toddler and I did really well on the whole trip! We flew Chicago-London-Stuttgart on British Airways.

Details on flying with a baby on British Airways:
- BA usually doesn't let you select a seat until 24 hours before check-in (unless you pay) but if you are traveling with an infant, you can call them ahead of time and they will assign you a bulkhead/bassinet seat for free. This is on their website.
- With a lap infant, you have to pay 10% of adult fare. I actually flew on AA miles, but they charged my toddler based on if I paid for my ticket. However, because of this, my child also had a baggage allowance of 1 checked standard luggage, 1 carry-on, stroller, and car seat.
- You can gate check your car seat and stroller for free, BUT you may not get it back until your final destination. It's basically up to the crew. On BA, they will try to store your stroller in the cabin but if there is no room they will check it.

From ORD-LHR, I was able to get a bulkhead/toddler bassinet seat in Economy. We were on a brand new 777 and it was really nice. The bulkhead seat had a ton of leg room. My toddler was able to play on the floor for a lot of the wait before we took off. The bathrooms were huge - the biggest I've ever seen on a plane - and the fold down diaper changing table was fairly large as well and I have a big toddler. The toddler bassinet is basically a bouncer/bouncy seat that they attach to a table that folds down from the bulkhead. You can still use your tray table and personal TV with the bassinet folded down, BUT the bassinet is actually really high up off the ground so it seemed like my child was on display. The BA flight attendants were also great and offered to help me at every juncture - to watch him while I went to the bathroom, to offer meds if he was sick, to help look for my stroller, to help carry my luggage when my roller broke, etc...

In Chicago, they gate checked my stroller because they were not able to store it in the cabin but they said I will be able to have it in LHR but I would have to get it off the luggage belt landside after immigration. They ended up losing my Maclaren. Needless to say, I was less than happy. The BA staff were all very nice about it but the policy/organization in this area was severely lacking. However, the guy at the luggage counter was very nice and gave me a brand new no frills stroller to use while in London. He also took down my info so if they found my stroller they would send it to STR.

LHR - Terminal 5. New British Airways terminal, really nice shops and restaurants but packed with people. We had a 6 hour layover so I booked a day room at the Sofitel that is connected landslide to T5. Because of the stroller incident and immigration, I didn't get to spend as much time as I'd liked in the hotel room but it was very nice. I requested a crib in the room in advance and it was waiting for me when I got there.

When we arrived in STR, two strollers were waiting for me because they found my stroller!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience since FT was so helpful in my research. Thanks!