Hi

We are emigrating from London to Melbourne in May and are looking at booking business class with Etihad (Some decent fares at the moment). My wife and I will have our circa 8 month old son in tow (as a lap infant, not in his own seat!) and I have a few questions:

• How would flying in the 2 middle seats with an infant be? It looks like there is a centre console between the 2 seats (As opposed to it being two seats right next to each other like some J products). Do you think it will be easy for us to pass him back and forth and generally create a bit of an area for him to play in? (I am assuming we won't get or can't use the bassinet)
• We would have almost 9 hours in Abu Dhabi. Is the lounge operating as normal at the moment? It looks like it is fairly well set up for families with the kids area (Not sure if this is open due to COVID, or even suitable for a baby). Any tips on surviving 9hrs with a little one? Is it worth paying for a private area - as I understand is possible?

In general if anyone has done this I would love to hear your experiences or any tips.

Thanks