iluv2fly

I'm trying to help my friend find tickets from ORD-CDG on AF. There are a total of nine passengers and he wants to fly all in Business Class. One is around two years old, another around four and a third is less than ten. No problem about paying retail for these tickets. Question is: Are the little ones allowed to fly in Business. If so, what are the requirements? If not, what are the options? Thanks in advance for any help.

fassy

Not a problem at all. For the two year old, it is important if the kid is older or younger than 24 months. If under 24 months they can fly a lap child, if older need their own seat.

Very few airlines actually ban kids from the premium cabins. AF is not one of those.

https://www.airfrance.us/US/en/commo...er_enfants.htm
https://corporate.airfrance.com/en/p...rd-little-ones

CanuckInParis

I've flown a couple times with my kids in Business and it is indeed no problem at all, and the crews have been great with them as well. One thing to know is that if you're on a flight that has the BEST seats, the kids have to take window seats. I'm not sure what the reason is, but the system seems to force it.

NHFL9

Agree nothing but positive experiences the two times we flew AF J with our lap infant.

caliform

I remember a post like this where OP talked about children's seating restrictions on KL's 787s — can't seem to find it now. Anyway, no problem OP, but you might get some particular seat assignments.

yno

I'm travelling extensively with my children and have often received as reply that it is linked to the location of the extra oygen masks (in case of lap child) and the fact that it is better that the adult is one the aisle side in case of an evacuation. And probably that statistically kids enjoy watching the scenrey through the window ;-)

iluv2fly

Thanks all for the informative responses. Very much appreciated.

caliform

That's it! The oxygen masks. Seems like that works out then

BettyKat

Reviving this thread to point out that this still appears to be the case: we just booked for May 2023 travel on Air France in business class (BOS-CDG), and I was unable to make the seat selections I wanted. Called in to find out why I kept getting errors selecting our seats and was told our child needed to go in the window seat.

The child in question will be 10 years old when we travel, so not a baby--but not so old that we're comfortable leaving him sleeping 'alone' in his window seat--and he isn't comfortable that way, either (he asked to sit next to one of us, having had the experience now of being next to me BOS-LAX in business class, with him in the window seat). The seating plan I was aiming for was: husband in 4A, child in 4D, me in 4G. They instead assigned child in 4A (the window).

The business class seating configuration on this plane doesn't allow for our son to be in a window with someone next to him in the aisle seat as we did for BOS-LAX, so my question is: when we travel, will Air France object to us switching up the seats to what we really wanted, or is the seating assignment Air France set up for us going to be strictly enforced? Curious to hear if anyone has relevant/recent experience with this...

SFO777

Not to worry. Cabin crew will not object to your switching seats to what is clearly a more sensible arrangement.

BettyKat

Welp, I want you to be right!

Have you been through this or just traveled enough on AF to know this is how they handle these things? Phone rep indicated policy was strict but I appreciate that this was likely an outsourced call center somewhere and she won't be nearly as familiar with the ways things are actually run on the plane....

CanuckInParis

The cabin crew didn't say anything when my wife and then 10 year old daughter switched window and aisle seats a couple years back. I've heard that the restriction has something to do with the oxygen mask configuration on the aisle vs window for smaller children. The computer will block any non-window seat assignment to anyone on a child ticket, but if your child is older I doubt the cabin crew would say anything.

NHFL9

On the 1-2-1 configured aircraft they require an adult to sit across the aisle from child. You cannot sit together in the middle. You should put the child in the window seat and adjacent adult in the middle section. Otherwise you'll get reassigned at some point close to departure. This is for evacuation purposes and for assistance with the oxygen mask. Actually makes quite a bit of sense.

BettyKat

We were unable to select seats after purchasing the tickets, so I called in to find out why the website kept producing an error. The answer: I was trying to assign my son into the middle section, and that is not allowed. The phone rep therefore assigned my son to the window seat. There will be no reassignment, as he is already in the window seat.

My question was about whether the cabin crew will allow us to seat ourselves differently once on board.

CanuckInParis

The official rule is that children have to sit in a window seat, and the system will block anyone on a child fare from selecting a middle seat (once your kids are 12 or older and fly on adult fares, there is no problem having them in the middle seat). Once onboard, if you have an older child, a switch will probably be OK; as I mentioned it was no problem with my 10 year old a few years back, but it really would depend on the cabin crew. Also, when checking in at the airport, you can ask to have seats reassigned so you can sit together; AF is generally quite good with this for families.

One other small note: The rule is just that children must be in a window seat on 1-2-1 configured aircraft, not that the adult must be sitting across from them in the middle. I've flown many times in J with my kids in seats 2A and 3A, with me behind them in 4A.