mcgella

Ah sorry, just saw you are trying to avoid connections...that does make it harder. You know her needs and how she travels the best (some kids will settle in and go to sleep, others need to move around more etc), but you may find it easier to book in premium economy to keep her close by (I realize this is not as great for you!)

zappy312

You've probably seen that the A330 center seats has a movable divider so I think that makes it easier to see her when it's open. If anything, I think it makes line of sight / talking possible, but any sort of physical contact is still very difficult.

shanediesel

Looking to get people's thoughts on this topic. Partner and I are flying YVR-OGG in two weeks with our 1 year old toddler in J on a Boeing Max. The return flight is a red eye with a departure of approx 23:00 and I am second guessing whether we should by flying J or not. There is a 80% baby sleeps the entire flight with very minor disruptions but also mindful of the 20% she is unsettled at times and will cry for short bursts. Main reason why we booked J was due to the 2 seat configuration but going through previous threads, is flying with a baby in J an issue?

pprrff

Nope. Only flew J (when available) with our under two kid since we had her and it makes a miserable experience slightly less miserable. Enjoy it while you can get away with free lap infants. Mine is now over 2 and flying J is less of a possibility with our means/points.

And if the baby is an annoyance (We got lucky and she's been awesome on flights), I can't see why I'd feel more guilty in front of J passengers as opposed to Y.

YYCCL3

It's a tough one. Another carrier that offers 2-2-2 seating would be much better for both of you, as you'd still get a lie flat seat but also be right beside your daughter. However adding a connection and trundling a 2 year old through passport control waiting for another flight etc when their body clock says it's the middle of the night is not much fun.

I was looking back at photos from the first flights my daughter did when she turned 2, and reverse herringbone layouts worked OK on both AC and KLM. IFE, stuffies, and other entertainment were key. Since the YYZ FCO route is currently operated by 787s I can provide specific feedback on those cabins with young children - if you take the same row number, both window (eg 3K) and middle seat (3G), the window seat is offset slightly ahead of the middle seat, so the adult sitting in the window could peer around the shell relatively easily and look at their child sitting in the seat across the aisle and slightly behind. We found that it was a good balance of comfort but also independence as she felt more like a "big girl"....Getting up and providing comfort during the critical stages of flight or turbulence is another story though...

Safe travels with your little one!

/edit: just re-read and saw that the aircraft switches to A333 at the end of Feb. In that case, I have no specific experience but looking at the seat map on Aerolopa, it looks as if the seat offset is reversed - middle ahead of window in this case. Not sure if it's offset enough to turn around and look behind and across the aisle though.

FreedomIsntFree

If you can swing it, do it. Much more comfortable in J with a baby. We flew in J on the 737 Max and the return in Y. Guess which flight was a better experience for our child and us?

Rundosrun

Last weekend I was on a redeye 787 from YVR to YYZ and the 1 year old in the cabin cried loudly many points during the night. But what can you do.

canadiancow

I think the expectation of "I paid to sleep" is much more reasonable when you've bought lie-flat on a 10 hour flight. If I paid $5k because I want to arrive well-rested, and I can't do that because a baby is crying the whole way, that's an issue. But I don't blame the baby (or the parents, really). I just think airlines should actually consider marketing a "sleeping zone" where you're not allowed to have a conversation, or bring in any animal, or any human young enough that you couldn't easily ban them if they're too loud (i.e. the optics of banning a 2 year old...).

But this isn't a pod, so my expectations of sleep would be substantially different.

If you want J, buy J.

keha

On the point about whether or not it’s worth flying with an infant/toddler in J versus premium economy, the service we got was worth it even though I only had about 2hrs of sleep on a flight from YVR>NRT.

Flight attendants kept checking in on us since we had two kids. Didn’t really cry much, just didn’t want to sleep. Offered to hold off on our meals until they settled down without us even asking them. Checked on the kids each time they walked by, even if it was to let us know they were still sleeping.

compare that to our return flight in Y since our original in J was cancelled, and the flight attendant wouldn’t even take our small bag of garbage that we had (random wrappers and scraps that we put into a small bag), and then just saying that there’s a garbage bun in the galley, while I was struggling to keep the kids in the seat.

part of me gets it. It’s a numbers game in terms of attendants to passenger ratio, but still, the tone they were using was quite rude .

rspencer38

Does anyone know if you are booked via AP J if they will let you choose seats in PY? Was originally booked on the Max8 in J but they have since changed the schedule and have now put us in the pods on a 787. One of our kids typically uses his car seat while on the plane which I know is not permitted in the pods. There aren't really any other viable flight options so I'm kind of stuck on how to proceed My child will be 3.5 years old and does pretty well with tablet distractions etc... and it is a relatively short flight (MCO - YYZ) but PY might be a little better setup.

FreedomIsntFree

100% we also recently had an exceptional experience flying in J from YVR to NRT with AC and from NRT to SFO with ANA. The additional attention and flexibility from the FAs is greatly appreciated. Our toddler is 22 months and an excellent flyer with 15 flights under her belt.

BTW are new favourite formation is last row of business one by the window and another in the aisle beside. Allows for the little one to drift between seats. Our last flight on ANA, we had rows 18-22 in J to ourselves and they let us use another seat so we had 3. Felt like flying First or Private.

more_points

AC has a policy that if you are flying with a toddler you need to book them in the seat right next to you. Which makes sense unless booking J in 1-2-1 pods where you are forced to book in the middle seat with the divider in the middle and no great way to walk around. Generally a good error proofing requirement but I guess doesn't work with pod seats. Good news is that I had no issue changing this on the phone.

OliP16

did the same recently. The seat across the aisle wasn’t available at booking but a friendly passenger offered to switch seats. So we had the child at the window, me across the aisle and wife behind the child. Was perfect for keeping an eye on her

blue2002

More specifically:
I will put this in a Wiki shortly

danjohn

the idea of a zone dedicated exclusively to sleeping is very appealing (particularly as texting on AC planes is becoming commonplace and those ‘dings’ are also sleep interrupting), however I think enforcement would be a challenge. More likely than not AC would just charge a premium fare