?? :eek:

The only question I can think of now : Is it first come first served basis or does it also have a status element like with food?

Lifejacket.

Although we haveour own 'infant inflation device' - it's called stuffing him full of aptimil at takeoff and landing. ;-)

It is technically first come first served.

BUT there comes a point where those in higher cabins might be grabbed quicker than those at the back.

So it's either Lord of The Flies or Animal Farm essentially right?

That's a touch harsh.

First come first served in effectively a sprint to the gate resembles lord of the flies to me. And J / F getting first nod seems like the four legs good / two legs better amendment in Animal Farm.

So I am sticking to my guns on this analogy ;-)

As someone who has recently started travelling with children, I had many of the same questions as the OP but I do wonder if it would be worthwhile setting up a wiki on here about travelling with infants - there seem to be so many tricks (including those mentioned on this thread, the difficulties of using the bassinet in F and issues around booking for unborn children) that come up reasonably often but there is no central source for FT knowledge

Infant life cot or child life jacket depending on the size of the baby.

Good shout

Eg the fact that at BCN Vueling seem to have have dedicated family checkin / bag drop lines AND dedicated security line for those with buggies they're taking to the gate. Was a nice touch.

Mods - as a relative newbie, what's the procedure? Or is there already a thread for this lurking?

I know right, that thing looks super comfy. I wish it was around when my kids were small enough to use it.

Hopefully. all your worry and stress is all for not, and you what you need to make the journey easier for all involved.

It may be worth adding a little context about 'guarantees' - there are few guarantees with air travel - your seat assignment isn't guaranteed, neither is your meal choice, and ultimately your travel on that aircraft at all isn't guaranteed if you get bumped. For that matter, the old saying goes there are no guarantees in life except death and taxes :eek:

The logistics of reserving bassinets in advance sounds expensive to me, and may not be workable due to space on board, and situations where the outbound flight has 20 babies and the inbound none (or vice versa) resulting in expense in carrying extra weight. More work for the cabin crew to do on boarding too which is a very busy time of the flight.

I think sometimes being persistent and sticking at your guns can be an admirable and courageous quality, but it is important to choose your battles.

Deleted. Wrong location!

Buying a seat, in F - using an approved car seat, for your infant, means nothing. As soon as the seatbelt sign comes on there's a good chance the crew will insist you unbuckle, get out of your seat, wake your child, unbuckle them, move them to your seat, and strap them in those horrible "baby straps". Happened on every F flight I took with an under-2 (ok it was only 1 flight, and only as J was full)

They may have changed their policy since, I wouldn't know as I'm not flying BA.