Originally Posted by smk786

Appreciate, in advance, folks’ advice.

My wife and I are booked along with our 6 month old daughter as a lap infant on AUH to JFK EY 1 in first class Apartments 3K & 4K on a paid ticket booked directly through EY.

The Residence is available as an upgrade on this flight though it wasn’t giving me the option to book it online at the time of booking nor to upgrade after booking. After I booked, I noticed the option to book directly into The Residence is available on this flight when searching 1-2 adults or 1 adult + lap infant but not 2 adults + lap infant.

I chatted with Etihad and then talked to a manager on the phone and was told that The Residence can only accommodate 2 passengers, and there’s no way to add a lap infant since the lap infant is a third passenger. He offered to split the reservation and upgrade 1 adult to The Residence while leaving the other adult + lap infant in Apartment. I worry that going this route will cause issues on the plane with all 3 of us not being permitted to sit together in The Residence, use its private bathroom, and use its bedroom together (similar to the video shared earlier in this thread with the Chinese vlogger on YouTube). It seems like from the video there was some acquiescence to spending time together but not fully and not without friction. When I asked the manager on the phone about this, there was frankly a significant language/communication barrier in him understanding my concern, and he told me I can just ask at the gate/counter what will be allowed. This doesn’t seem to be a great/reliable approach. If I want to take my chances with this, I’d put my wife and daughter on The Residence upgrade and then just hope I’d be allowed to join them but curious on other people’s thoughts/experiences/advice.