charlotenburg

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themax

I've been in your situation a number of times, so I hope my wisdom helps:

BA are unlikely to check your wife's bags all the way through to CDG as she is on two different bookings. The new policy does not allow the bags to be interlined on the different bookings. I am BA Gold and BA will still not allow bags to be checked through UNLESS the flights are booked together. I have even offered to PAY and this has also been (politely refused). They will tell you that if your wife wanted a through-ticket to Paris she should have called BA to make this purchase. I know this sounds crazy, but this is the new BA policy and all of the evidence so far suggests they are sticking to it. Perhaps the check-in agent at JFK may take pity on your wife because she has a baby, but don't count on it.

Upon arrival at LHR your wife will need to clear UK immigration, collect her bags, and then go through customs, go upstairs, and proceed through departure formalities. Check-in at JKF should be able to issue her CDG boarding pass, but she'll need to go to a bag drop to have new baggage tags printed and deposit the bags. To be honest, a 90 minute connection is tight at LHR on the best of days, but with a baby and the need to clear immigration and re-check you might want to consider booking her on a later connection. Seriously. (also, if you have a US passport it is not uncommon to wait 30-45 minutes at Immigration control in the morning). Some solutions (other than re-booking):

1) Send her bags via First Luggage (the link is on BA.com) a few days before so she only travels with hand luggage. Make sure the stroller is small and can be carried in the cabin, otherwise BA will check it at the door of the plane (and will ONLY deliver it on the luggage belts, not back to the door of the plane upon arrival).
2) Give your wife your Club Class "Fast Track" invitation so that she and your baby can speed through UK Immigration Control.

In regards to your seating/upgrade question, BA will not upgrade your baby and your wife unless they need to (and even then, only in sequence based on HER status, not yours). There are many status card holders on this route, so an upgrade to Club (especially with a baby) is unlikely unless your wife has OW status.

As crazy as it sounds, the BA checkin staff will NOT likely let you sit next to your wife in WTP if you have a J ticket. I don't know why, but I have had this request refused twice in the past. That said, you can be fairly sure that once you have boarded if you offered to swap seats with the person sitting next to your wife it is safe to assume that they would oblige you!

Sorry I can't be more positive.

WorldLux

You must really hate your wife and/or the baby to book something like that for them. I'm frankly somewhat surprised that you went that way given that booking XXX-LON-CDG as one would probably have cost the same or less.

There's going to be a wave of "you're not on a connection" comments. The worst case scenario has already been mentioned. Your wife would have to pass through immigration, pick up the checked bags, go through customs, walk to the check-in counters, recheck the backs, clear security, and get to the gate. I wouldn't count on getting the bags checked through.

I'd say that in principle there's no problem in kindly asking the F/A to switch seats among two adults. The issue is probably the infant. An infant travelling in a bassinet will almost certainly be unable to just switch to a random CW seat.

Personally I'd try to change the award to Paris to give them a lot more time.

madfish

LondonCanuck

As someone who have travelled with stroller and baby 50+ times, the one thing to remember is:

If you get a big orange tag that says “deliver to gate”, chances are your stroller will be arriving as you exit the plane (although I have sometimes waited up to 30 mins), and if it doesn’t have an orange tag, it will be delivered to luggage belt.


Some airports, like Singapore (and, I think, Sydney), will not do gate checked strollers, but BA have a list of these and will tell you when you check in. Most North American routes that I have been on will have stroller gate check in, including JFK/YYZ etc. Make sure the large orange tag is on it, and you should be fine

Globaliser

It would have been good if you had asked for advice before you booked this.

As it stands, you have probably made it impossible for them to make their onward flight. Even if the inbound flight is on time, it's likely to take them 45-60 minutes to transfer within Terminal 5 to the main building, clear immigration, collect their bags and clear customs. But bag drop for the London-Paris flight closes at 45 minutes before the onward flight, so there is every chance that they will not get to check-in in time to do this. They will then have missed the London-Paris flight.

You can still fix this. Change the New York-London-New York tickets to New York-London-Paris-London-New York tickets. You will have to pay the change fee of USD 275 for the adult, but I think that there is no change fee for an infant who does not have their own seat, so depending on how you have booked you may be in for only one change fee. The fare difference is likely to be small, if anything, if you make the change now for May travel. (Again, ask for advice in advance if you need any, giving as much detail as you're prepared to.) You can then cancel the Avios ticket and get the Avios back, although you will probably lose the cash element that you've paid (we don't know how much that was, so we can't be precise).

The alternative fix is to change the Avios ticket. Realistically, I think that you would be well advised to leave 4 hours or more between the arrival of the New York-London flight and the departure of the London-Paris flight. This will allow for all the steps that need to be completed at Heathrow, plus an allowance for the extra time it takes to travel with a baby, plus some margin for small contingencies like a small delay. But even with that sort of connection time, a 3-hour delay (which is unusual but far from unknown) and the plans are toast.

charlotenburg

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windowontheAside

It doesn't really make sense, except to encourage some people to buy the more expensive through tickets. It's a fairly recent change and one that seems to be being upheld pretty much everywhere - at least we're not seeing (m)any reports of being being able to through check on separate tickets.

85 minutes would be fine on a through ticket; with HBO and as a solo traveller I'd risk it on separate tickets, but add checked bags and a baby into the mix and I think the chances of making it are vanishingly small, even if everything is on time.

Andriyko

Others have already explained that it'd be almost impossible for your wife and the baby to make that connection, so I would change the LHR-CDG flight to a (much) later one. As far as seating together is concerned - it may not be possible to pay for an upgrade to the airport as you are travelling with a baby; however, why should you waste a CW seat and go to WTP? Why not offer the CW seat to your wife instead while you sit with the baby in WTP?

EsherFlyer

I may have missed it above, but in case it isn't there given OPs not unreasonable assumption on baggage...

BA won't usually protect misconnect on different tickets either, so missing the planned LON-PAR will forfeit both directions of the Avios booking.

charlotenburg

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sammyg901

Airport Upgrades (AUP) promotion 2018 thread is the AUP thread - seems like it'd be ~$800 give or take for a WTP - CW upgrade on the day, not sure if an infant ticket rules this out though