I just barely survived a flight on Cathay Pacific on business class with my 3 year old from SFO to BOM. The herringbone seating is just not conducive to family travel. My son cried the whole take off and landing and in between, I had to go to his seat to switch his shows every 20 minutes (he could not watch any of the movies on his own without one of us sitting next to him because even PG movies invariably have scary parts so I had to go with the Disney TV options which were all about 20 minutes long), eat with him in his seat before eating my meals... It was just miserable for me. I was also worried that if we hit turbulence or worse, how would I be able to comfort him or help him with the oxygen mask, etc...

On the flight home, I was thinking it would be best to downgrade to Economy Plus because at least I would be able to sit next to him. Has anyone done this before? Is that even something the airline would do? Also, I saw online that the arm rests between the seats in Economy Plus do not fold up. Is that true? If so, it would be hard to get my son to sleep. In economy, I usually lifted the arm rest and let him lay on me. If the arm rest can not lift, should I downgrade all the down to economy?!?

Losing sleep over the return flight so any advice would be greatly appreciated.