jplondon

With a little one on the way I am starting to read up on all related to traveling with children. One of my colleagues (BAEC Silver) tells me that when he books tickets on ba.com for him and his children he is not allowed to select seats at booking because the booking involves children? This seems very odd to me. Is this true?

Gatwickba

As a Silver member, he should be able to select seats if on the same booking ref.
If you arent Silver or Gold, seats will be allocated 72hrs prior to departure if the booking involves children

BA_Pax

Hi, I'm Gold and have bookings for the 4 of us, which is Mr and Mrs, 1 x child and 1 x infant. I cannot change the assigned seats at all either. I think it's partly due to number of oxygen masks (think the 737 has 3 on the right, but 4 on the left). Therefore we couldn't have Row 1 DEF because we'd be one mask short if they were needed.

oipig

I have just booked myself, the wife and our 1 year old on BA in club europe and have been able to pre select seats and we are only baec blues.My understanding is that if the booking has an infant you can do this.The flight is also a 737 and have opted for row 2 A,B ,we were row 1 before.

wyvern

I have been able to pre-select seats when traveling with my daughter. If you're on the same PNR, as a Silver, you should be able to do this. If you don't have status (or for a Silver where the bookings are not on the same PNR) BA purports to pre-seat children with their parents at T-3 days, but my experience is this does not always work.

Some seats such as emergency exit rows should not be selectable if travelling with children but everything else should.

Hopefully at some point BA will revisit its seating policy, and introduce seat selection on booking in more booking classes than just full fare (providing appropriate seats are held back for pax with status) and/or seat selection/OLCI at T-3 days or T-2 days for all EC members (remember when it was 24hrs for EC and 12 for everyone else)?

jplondon

He did indeed mention it was an issue because of oxygen masks. So for me, Mrs and 1 x infant 1 AC or 2 AC should be OK, but in Economy not I guess, unless you buy seat for the infant and take ABC, assuming oxygen mask for infant is compulsory?

ThatT1Feeling

... I assume (well, I hope) that tongue was firmly in cheek when asking this question?? Congrats on the arrival of the little 'un. You will find that a lot of things do change when travelling with children, although seat allocation should in theory be better... on longhaul flights you should be able to allocate the mother to a bassinet seat (although you won't be able to put yourself next to her until T-24!!).

On shorthaul yes it is absolutely right that the positioning of O2 masks can affect where you can sit. This is a good thing!

Am sure Swiss Tony will confirm lots of the other changes, including:

There is a complate lack of consistency on what you can and cannot do with taking pushchairs on flights. Different groundstaff will swear blind that you a) must check them in, b) you can only take them to the aircraft door, c) you can put them in the overhead lockers, d) they must go into a coat locker on board.

Don't expect any help in negotiating stairs to aircraft on the grounds of health and safety. (while carrying buggy, baby, bag full of bottles and nappies etc.) If you happen to fall while doing this you will probably get sued by BA for endangering other passengers behind you...

Don't expect any other help at all (apart from some cabin crew who are truly fantastic and won't be able to to enough for you, probably against the rules. The rest will follow the rules completely which means you get no help)

Don't expect any help. Full stop...

Don't expect to be preboarded even though it's meant to happen. If it does happen be prepared for lots of perfectly fit people to still push in before you and then tut when you are allowed to go before them and then hold them up.

You can't sit in exit rows with children

Alternatively, board from almost any outstation where they generally can't do enough for you if you have children. Good recent experiences for me include HKG, PVG, NCE, EWR, SFO, JFK plus LGW!!

Really bad experiences, LHR, LHR, LHR, LHR, NCL, LHR, WAW, LHR, DME, LHR.

But it can, seriously, be fantastic!! Some crews are excellent and do their very best to take as much of the stress away as possible. You soon find that most other passengers are very very understanding as long as you're not letting little'un run wild. If you're seen to be trying, then you're generally OK!!

Good luck

jplondon

Thanks for all the great info! Sounds like fun!

Well, if I am honest, I had never thought that meant there are more oxygen masks then there are seats and I guess it also means you could not have 2 people with each an infant for example in one row. All makes sense, shame you cannot have both husband and wife seated in advance at bassinet, but guess no one else can take that seat until T-24 either, can they?