GaryH66

Hi All

Sorry if this has already been posted about. This is my first post here so thanks in advance for any help or advice.

I am due to fly LHR to JFK next April outbound 08:25 03/04 and return 21:00 08/04.

I am flying with my wife and 15 yr old daughter who is a Very nervous flier. We are flying CW both flights are 747-400's.

What I would like to know is what seats would be best for us a family wishing to sit together? Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks GaryH66

toothy

Welcome to FT GaryH66.

This thread should help - Boeing 747-400. Which are the best seats?
Also, it's worth looking here - Seating Queries: Club World

Finally, the Dashboard (accessible at the top of the forum) has lots of useful links to threads to learn lots of things you may or may not need to know


T

dougzz

Hello GaryH66 and welcome, a proper welcome will follow from one the admins I'm sure. It's very unlikely you'll fly on a 747, the schedule for April next year is far from certain, but unless some sort of complete reversal to the old normal takes place I believe the 747 is unlikely to fly again.
With a nervous flyer the old CW layout is possibly better than the newer club suite layout, as you have pairs of seats facing each other.
I'd say wait until much closer to find out the aircraft type, and take it from there.
Have a look in the dashboard thread, there are threads on many aircraft types discussing the merits of particular seats, also bear in mind that aircraft swaps can happen right up until the last moment.

GaryH66

Hi Toothy

Thanks for reply and advice.

Hi dougzz

Thanks for the welcome and info re the 747 moving out of service. I didn't realise the 747's were going.

I will wait a while and see what happens a little nearer departure date.

mikeyfly

Hi Gary - if it is going to cost you money to reserve seats of your choice, I'd certainly not do this until later in the year when things have settled and aircraft are more "firmed up" on certain routes. April is Summer 2021 season, so these shuffles may not happen until later in the autumn

gcuk

Hi GaryH66.
Pure speculation that 747s wont be in service next year.
To answer your question, assuming your daughter is ok with a window seat, my preference would be to book a window and aisle seat and then the aisle seat in the row behind the other aisle seat. That way, your daughter has one parent next to her and can have the divider down the whole flight to maintain eye contact. The other parent has direct access to her from the row behind.
If your daughter is okay without a window, in the centre bank of 4 seats, you could book the two middle, rear facing seats and an aisle seat next to those. That way your daughter would have one of you each side of her. The downside would be if she had one of the middle seats, and you aren't in the last row of each cabin section (although these can be blocked as bassinet seats), she would not have direct aisle access and would need to step over the seat in the row behind, although for a 15 year old, that should be easily doable.
Hope that helps and if the aircraft does change, pop back and I'm sure someone will be able to give advice.

GaryH66

Hi mikeyfly

Thanks for your replay.

Yes I will incur cost to reserve seats so based your advice and others I will sit tight until later this year.

Hi gcuk
Great advice thanks and much appreciated.

PETER01

As I understand it there's no official confirmation the 747's going in one sweep but they were slowly being phased out anyhow as can be seen from the threads linked to upthread so it's speculation at the moment is the bottom line as I read it.

However, reading comments online it's been alluded to they're going sooner than the scheduled departure of them. It's a long way off so I would just wait and see and if it is switched to another type then there are threads on here you can find for seating suggestions and then there's the cost factor too of reserving them if you don't have status.

From a personal point of view I'm sad to see them go, no place like the Club World up there! However, they're not as efficient as the 787's etc so totally understandable why. Lastly welcome to Flyertalk and the BA Board GaryH66

toothy

What it is probably worth you doing is keeping an eye on the seat map, for two reasons:

• To see if there is an aircraft change
• To keep an eye on the seats free in the upper deck. It isn't something that's going to be around for long and in my opinion is something that's worth experiencing if you can. So it may be worth you splashing out on the seats. I believe that that money can then be used to select seats if the aircraft changes.

T