Originally Posted by
brightstar100
My daughter is five and has flown 600,000 miles on BA, with vast majority of long haul flights in F. She is one third of the way to Lifetime Gold (which you accrue from when you start paying child fare at two).
We have never had a problem with BA staff, especially in F and the CCR. Quite the opposite, sometimes the treatment has nearly been too much - Captain coming out of cockpit to visit her on several flights, F check-in staff at T5 asking her behind desk to assist with check-in, etc. They are so welcoming.
Now other passengers in F, that is another story. Although the complainers and glarers are still rare - LHR - JFK route is where we have had most problems.
Originally Posted by
binman
BA and families with young kids and babies is a bit like oil and water, they don’t mix.
In in my experience BA are not family friendly and the sight of my kids in premium cabins over the years and in the Concorde room had caused a variety of responses. From the downright hostile to the much rarer welcome. In 15 years of flying with my kids I have never felt comfortable and only Cathay and Qantas dealt with kids superbly. I flew F SIN to HKG on CX and forgot I had small children! Qantas were also exceptional but BA have been mediocre at best.
it my view it stems from their rather outdated internal policy of banning all kids of staff from F till they are 12. This includes the CEO and chairman. It’s a Dickensian approach but I have no doubt it influences heavily the thinking of staff at all levels.
for me it’s public transport and if you pay to be in a premium cabin, have status, or are following the rules then babes in arms and kids of all ages are welcome.
I so rarely have anything positive to say about BA on FT but I just wanted to weigh in here to state that our impression after 180K miles with our coming up on 3YO is that BA are absolutely excellent with infants and under 2YO with what may be the most family-friendly and accomodating polices, practices on-board and in our experience in culture.
- The F lounges in both T5 and T3 have dedicated kids areas which must surely end the discussion about whether they are 'supposed' to be there.
- The Britax seats for kids above bassinet age but under two are (I think) unique to BA and a significant differentiator versus other airlines when travelling with toddlers (as is the fact that it can be used in 64A)
- In our experience the lack of Aisle access in CW is a significant advantage when travelling with a 2YO (although that is possibly the only good thing about CW)
- BA's policy of providing a free seat for infants turning two during the journey for the remainder of the ticket is about the most family-friendly out there
- the recent 'maternity/paternity' benefit is another step in the right direction
- Onboard service, friendliness and general attitude toward us and our child from staff has been universally positive on BA Long Haul.
I did mention that there are very few good things about BA and when flying alone I generally choose AA or QR (or even EI) where I have the choice, but when travelling with the family we will usually choose to fly BA.... this may change as the young one gets older as my impression is that BA are excellent towards infants, not so great towards older kids.