For those that fly often on CX, can you advise how strict they are in first class with allowing "visitors"? My wife and I are booked in 1A/1K, but our two children and nanny will be flying economy (was thinking about putting them in business, but my oldest, who is 4, would probably feel uncomfortable being isolated in those seats). We wouldn't mind bringing up our 4 year-old daughter and possibly our 1 1/2 year-old son to sit with us for part of the flight. Is this frowned upon or not allowed?

Ok - I have seen what you describe happen - I was on a flight recently with mom and pop in First and nanny + children in economy. Nanny came up with children during the flight and mom cuddled child for a while. So I guess CX must allow it or be used to it happening.

Whether or not it was an individual crew allowing it, or company policy i don't know.

however - the parents chose to sit at the rear of the First cabin and minimize disruption to the rest of the passengers. They sat in row 4, nanny handed children over at the doorway.

I would complain as an F passenger if the nanny was walking through the F cabin to deliver children to someone in 1A/K. It invades my privacy and the overall security of the cabin (with my possessions lying around).

Hopefully for you a couple of First class seats might open up closer to the date so the family can travel together - I know it's not nice to be separated.

Edited to add: the 1.5 yr old could sit as a lap infant anyway am I right? So that could be added straight away to one of the current F tickets. Then that would only need 1 other seat to open in First for the 4 yo.

I don't know CX's official policy, but I would definitely complain as a F passenger. You didn't pay F tickets for them so they should not be allowed in F. As simple as that no matter what age they are.

If you want to see them, then go back to economy.

When we travel, we all fly together in F or J. Kids are now 4 1/2 and 1 1/2. Split cabins will happen when the kids are older and can take care of themselves.

P.S. My 4 year old was perfectly fine in SQ's F (77W) and CX's F (77W) by herself. I explained to her the seat arrangement before the flight. When she wanted to sleep, she would sometime come over and sleep with one of us.

oh!!

i had assumed the only reason the OP would be asking this question is because the First cabin was full and they were unable to get 4 seats.

Why else would you split the family into separate classes???

The 777 makes this a fairly easy decision. Parents in 2D and 2K, kids in row 11 (J) which is less than 2 feet away and separated only by a curtain (versus galley and lavs on 744). No traffic disruption to other F pax. At the margin, safety also enhanced due family is proximate to one another. Don't laugh, I've lost friends and/or colleagues that didn't make it out of accidents where others did. No way I'm putting that much distance between me and my kids.

As for the why component, my kids aren't old enough to drink and they don't like caviar. I'm happy conserving currency having them in the first row of J while I'm a few feet ahead them with the Mrs.

I'm not sure if this will be allowed, especially with the disturbance to both F and J cabins in your case.

I, too, would find this disruptive, -- as an informed FT poster, you'll obviously keep exchanges to a minimum, of course. IIRC this has been addressed/discussed extensively in the BA forum, but I don't recall which thread.

My understanding is the official policy is that guests from other classes cannot be invited to F. I would presume you have to use good judgement and be discreet. I would suggest you let the FA know your children are in back, and see if they suggest the visit, or they may say its OK for you to go back and visit in their class.

Don't know about CX, but on SQ, you will be asked to go back to the cabin they are travelling in and do your tucking in there.

Sometimes the CSD may allow a short visit but in all honesty, they may just suggest you go to their cabin instead of them coming in.

Yes I agree with everyone else here. If you want visitors, sit at the back. Not in front. Your children may sit for a while. But cannot whine. Nor can they sit with you during meals.

The cabin crew may allow it but you will be at the bane of your fellow passengers.

Just my take.

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's good to know that it's not necessarily disallowed by CX and it's also good to know how other passengers feel about it. We certainly wouldn't want to cause any disruption or annoyance to our fellow F cabin travelers, and we definitely wouldn't dream of having the nanny bring our children up from economy. We would, of course, fetch them ourselves, if we chose in the end to bring them up at all.

In our flights, currently there are no other seats taken in F class so availability was not the issue of having our children and the nanny fly economy. As I mentioned before, our 4 year-old daughter would feel very uncomfortable being isolated in a CX F or J class seat. It would have been fine if CX didn't re-design their cabins, but with the layouts how they are now, it would not be a comfortable experience for her being "alone".

Yes, we can easily add our 1 1/2 year-old son to one of our tickets as a "lap infant", but the issue is he still experiences discomfort with the change in cabin pressure during take-off and landing, and we would not wish his acting out his discomfort onto our fellow F cabin passengers whether we paid for him to be in first class or not. Not that we feel great about that happening in economy either, but given what our neighbors would have paid for their seats, we would have to give preference to them.

As for the idea that our children shouldn't be allowed to sit with us for part of the flight since we "didn't pay F tickets for them", I can understand how some people might feel that way, though I find exceptions can be made when it concerns very young children. I do understand about not causing disturbances or invading the space of others, and certainly I find it distasteful when children are allowed to run around the cabins, whether a "F ticket" was paid for or not. But if they are sitting or sleeping quietly with us in our own space and they're not the cause of a cabin shortage of Krug, and they are not taking up another seat or dining with us, then if this was someone else, I personally wouldn't have a problem with it.

Still, I think we would only bring our children to sit with us if the cabin was otherwise empty and given that the cabin crew didn't have any objections so as to not risk any annoyances to anyone else sitting in F.

You and your family can fly on my flights anytime (provided that your kids don't deplete the Krug supply, of course). Would that all pax were so considerate of others.

So you're saying that the presence of other F passengers doesn't compromise the security of your possessions? What's to prevent a businessman in F from stealing your laptop etc. vs. a nanny in Y?

Also, I believe OP is traveling on a 747, since he has pre-selected seats 1A/K, which are adjacent on a 747 but across two aisles on the 777.

Not saying it doesn't compromise the safety of my possessions... there are reports of crew stealing from pax luggage in F and J classes... but having a 'secure' cabin without passengers from other classes being allowed through just eliminates a proportion of risk.

If something went missing it is a lot easier to just look around another 8 passengers, rather than the crew saying 'well, other passengers were allowed in here so it could have been one of them'.

Minor issue I know.

amanjunkie ^ - thank you for being considerate! The seats are huge - big enough for a couple for a couple to snuggle (just). So the 1.5 y/o would be swimming in space.

From the sound of it I am sure your 1.5 y/o would be well behaved. I'd add them as a lap infant if you feel inclined (and if the worst happens they can always be sent back to economy for a while under the care of the nanny - much easier to move the baby down a class thhan to move them up a class)

On my CX flight the mother held her baby/child during boarding, then I noticed once or twice during the flight as well. So the CX crew seemed to be accommodating. Being at the back of the cabin may have helped... but at the end of the day, the children were well behaved and at the fare those passengers were paying I'm sure CX wouldn't want to alienate the business!

OP, from your comments I can see that you are considerate of your fellow passengers. If you must have the kids and nanny visit you, though, and if the FAs even allow it, the truly considerate course would be to do as the couple described here did--have your assigned seats be in the back of F. And the even more considerate course would be
to go back to Y and visit them. Again, while I'm sure you're considerate, what you consider your kids and the nanny quietly passing through, talking or playing in F might be seen by fellow passengers as their being distracting.