Originally Posted by
yabadoo
This is correct, and I have seen this happen on EY. a "normal" passenger was seated in one of the seats where the bassinets are and on boarding the Purser switched him out into another seat so that the couple who was traveling with the baby could sit together and also so that he did not have a screaming child entertaining him during the flight.
What I don't understand, and why EY find this so excruciatingly difficult, is to positively confirm and block those seats for those passengers who have babies under 2 years old who need the bassinet and the child is clearly included in the PNR. Why give the run-around and stress to go to the airport and play roulette to see if they can get the bassinet seats or not. I mean, who are they saving the seat for? If they believe that it's first-come-first-served at the airport gets the seats, then how is that different to being first-come-first-served to get the seats when you actually make the reservation?
It's a simple fix, this is not complicated, and will win EY repeat business from passengers who are in the situation where they need the bassinets and know they can reserve it when they book.
As you say. It should really be first come first served at reservation time. That would be simple.
My experience has been hit and miss with a bassinet (in Y). A couple of times we got the seats and bassinet and a couple of times we didn't. I always made sure I was at the airport when checkin opened. But still no luck on a couple of occasions.
Once, my wife was flying MAN-AUH with our one year old (booked 10 months in advance). She only needed one seat. When she checked in, she was told that the last seat had just gone. When I quizzed them further, I was told that a party of eight had checked in together with one infant and taken up an entire row (2,4,2). I did ask them how they could take all 8 seats and asked if they could move one or two of them. But was told she could ask onboard. When she asked onboard, the stewardess asked and nobody would move.