Jenna

Has anyone ever flown B.A. with young children, ages of the children are 1 year, two 3 year olds and a 5 year old? There are two sets of adults each with two children. How is B.A. with the young children, I know with the 1 year old, we would be hoping to get bulkhead seats.., other than requesting them at booking is there anything else we can do? Does B.A. offer any help familes traveling with young children?<BR><BR>Thanks!

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Can anyone help?

Alec

BA is usually very good at looking after families with young children. You can pre-book bulkhead seats, and request kids' meals and activity packs. Their cabin crew are well trained to cope with children in a quiet, unfussed manner, and generally keep a good balance between the needs of young families and other passengers (by offering to change seats, for example).

kam

They used to also have bassinets that attached to the overhead compartment above the bulkhead. Do they still do that and would a one year old fit in such a thing? Having flown a lot with little kids, I would suggest you buy many very small, cheap presents and wrap each one. Stuff like crayons and erasers etc. When they get bored you pull out another surprise--a favorite stuffed toy is also a good idea.

Ryn

BA still offers bassinets and they also offer special-made Britax childseats that attach to the bulkhead. However, you can only use the seats up to age 2, and there are only six offered per flight. They do give a nice little goody pack for kids, but it's not going to be enough to keep them occupied for more than an hour or so.<BR><BR>The biggest problem with flying with kids on BA (or Virgin) is the carryon baggage allowance. It's 12 lbs. per person, which does not allow for much in the way of snacks, beverages and books.<BR>While I like BA, I don't travel with them when my kid is along. I think it is safer for him to travel in his carseat; he's 4, but he is still under 40 lbs.<BR>UK carriers will not allow the use of personal safety seats onboard, except for infant seats in some cases. We flew Continental this last time; it went very well, as they have very generous onboard baggage storage.

ilisa

Ryn, do you mean that if I flew BA with my 2 year old, they wouldn't let me bring along our carseat like I do on other airlines? Amazing.

xxx

You can also request special assistance when getting off the flight to get around the airport, they can have someone meet you at the gate and take you through the airport without having to struggle like the rest of us, make the request through the reservation agent or at the airport.

Jenna

I should have mentioned earlier.., due to budget constraints the one year old does not have a seat. Would I request the Britax child seat for the bulkhead at check-in? When I booked the tickets, the BA agent I spoke with told me that was the only way I could do it.

Susan O.

Another question here: I believe we've secured bulkhead seats for our BA flight with kids but I've now read somewhere that the armrests don't go up on the bulkhead seats. This would make it difficult to set my child up to sleep with head on my lap. Experience, anyone? And what about those personal movie screens -- what does one have in a bulkhead seat?<BR><BR>Note to Jenna: BA does have nice kids meals but you need to order in advance. And they have a policy of serving the kids first so you can get them going on their dinner and not risk yours becoming cold.

Amy

In bulkhead on BA the individual movie screens flip up from the armrest, so I think it is accurate that the arerests wouldn't move. I would still think bulkhead would be helpful to the kids just for "wriggle room". <BR>Have a great trip!