Proudelitist

I dont understand why you did not pay to reserve seats and STILL expect to sit together. And going in PRESUMING a law is risky.

mikeyfly

Why on earth should OP fork out £600+ for seat choices (and he's not demanding all four pax together) when he does have an entitlement from BA to seat a child next to an adult. He is correct to expect & presume

V10

I think that's a perfectly reasonable expectation to have if you're the parent of very young children.

ThatT1Feeling

BA's own published policies should ensure that at least each child should be with one parent. They don't guarantee that everyone will sit together, but each child should be with one parent, as KARFA said earlier. So that's probably why the OP didn't pay.

wantmymoneyback

I can presume a law as much as I want, however I was aware of BA policy- However I would usually rely on law over BA's t&cs.

I do not EXPECT to sit with anyone, however would feel it rather unkind for someone paying £2k+ to have to babysit my children for a 10 hour flight- actually I may rather enjoy it.

Sometimes in life you can make situations work to your advantage- and this is one of them which will have saved me circa £400.

UKtravelbear

There isn't a law involved here.

There is CAA guidance but that is all it is - guidance. Guidance isn't the same as the law. If it was an actual regulation then it would be the law. But it's not a regulation either.

The issue here is BAs own policies (again not law) and what they say.

And they say essentially the same as the CAA. Children <12 should be next to an adult and 'next' to includes the row in front or behind and across the aisle.That recognises the practicalities of cabin layouts.

OP is entitled to rely on BAs own policies.

The biggest issue here is that a BA phone agent not knowing BAs policy in this area and giving the wrong advice that the OP should pay. If I was the OP then I would rightly be annoyed by that.

wantmymoneyback

The biggest issue here is that a BA phone agent not knowing BAs policy in this area and giving the wrong advice that the OP should pay. If I was the OP then I would rightly be annoyed by that.[/QUOTE]

actually starting to look forward to the free childcare from my children's seat neighbour.

Krisz

There will be a solution and you will sit next to your child. If it's not fixed you can go to the airport and they will fix it.
In my example I had a CE ticket and later I decided to have my daughter with me. (4 years old) I had to phone to buy her ticket and I was promised that she will sit next to me and it will be sorted as I couldn't do it online. The outbound was fixed but the return not. I was directed to the ticketing counter where a very helpful agent fixed the whole booking.
So probably you just need to go to the ticket desk and they should fix the whole booking (return too) so you don't need to worry for the whole holiday.

corporate-wage-slave

From the seat map published, that is the First cabin, so a 4 class 777 used as on a 3 class flight. However if it is BA2167 on 9 December then at the moment that front row is still showing as blocked rather than allocated to someone. Now this could be OK, there is a scenario where this fits in, but I'm wondering if the seating has changed on your side of MMB - it kind of suggests that it has not.

LordBuckethead

This looks like an aircraft swap. BA has a *very* small team in Manchester looking after pre-seating, and occasionally on aircraft swaps some get missed, but don't worry, a solution will be found. If you want to expedite the process, and as the flight is soon, give the CS line a call and ask it to be queued to the MAN seating guys.

HilFly

When this happened to a friend of mine, he offered to leave the diaper bag with the guy sitting next to his toddler. The guy suddenly decided that he would offer to switch seats.@:-)

Often1

BA has not remotely done the slightest thing in contravention of either guidance or policy. Yet.

This will get sorted at the gate when staff can figure out the requirements of other passengers (other children, disabled, and so on) and utilize seats which may become free due to no shows and the like.

Maybe the family will get lucky and wind up in good seats together. Perhaps it will be some hodge-podge which does seat each kid next to an adult. "Next to" should certainly include across an aisle.

kb9522

I see a number of posts stating BA has a policy about seating children adjacent to a parent... I don't see this anywhere in the CoC... Where are people getting this from?

simons1

It will get sorted.

In the event of difficulties, a suggestion of wishing to offload just as they are preparing to close doors will focus minds.

TabTraveller

[QUOTE=wantmymoneyback;29132702]Hmmm that kinda is what he is saying though?

Your friend sounds like a bit of an arse. If I happened to be sitting in a preferred window seat I'd suggest that the child and parent move elsewhere to less desirable seats if they couldn't be bothered to pay to sit together.