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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to want all of my dcs to sit with me on a long haul flight.....

136 replies

posieparker · 16/06/2009 12:14

Flying to HK, 12 hours, with my dcs....7,6, 2 and 7mths alone. BA want the two older dcs to sit accross an aisle from me as another booking may require the basinette that the dcs will sit in front of. I have phoned customer relations but can't get anywhere. It means that one of the older dcs will be sat next to a stranger and behind, potentially, a basinette....which really get in the way.
Anyone got any tips how to improve my situation, we're only flying cattle class but we do this once a year and my parents at least three times.
Or does anyone know the number to get further with BA?

OP posts:
PhaseAte · 16/06/2009 14:21

they might be next to a PEAEDIATRICIAN

omg

lol

LibrasBiscuitsOfFortune · 16/06/2009 14:21

You do sound like a crazed DM reader. It's the aisle ffs. You'll still be able to shout at them and pass them fruit shoots.

SoupDragon · 16/06/2009 14:23

Can't you "go to your booking online and change your seats? As you are flying with an infant, you should be able to do it now.

I flew BA last summer with 9, 7, 2 yr old and me. I simply chose bulkhead seats when I checked in online. I didn't even want a bassinet at all.

dalek · 16/06/2009 14:23

You are giving parents who fly with children a bad name - the older ones might enjoy having a bit of space and being grown up!

posieparker · 16/06/2009 14:26

Libra, I do not read dm and you should read whole thread.
Fruit shoots ref?

OP posts:
GetOrfMoiLand · 16/06/2009 14:26

Agree about having the 7, 6 and 2 year olf in the 3 seat config, you across the aisle with the baby.

LibrasBiscuitsOfFortune · 16/06/2009 14:27

I did read the whole thread. You are being precious.

PhaseAte · 16/06/2009 14:28

dont take the kids
HTH

JoPie · 16/06/2009 14:35

YABU. You choose to fly alone with 4 children, you can't expect to get special treatment over and above everyone else. You are coming across as rather precious and very selfish.

GetOrfMoiLand · 16/06/2009 14:38

This thread makes me laugh - it begins all "it's an outrage, bloody BA" to "gerrover yourself woman". Good old MN

Bucharest · 16/06/2009 14:42

I think the OP has rather done that to herself.....
Poor pie-eating tight slacked lone males.....

CountessDracula · 16/06/2009 14:44

I really can understand your concerns
but I think my idea is the best (natch)

mumoverseas · 16/06/2009 15:04

But at the end of the day, the airlines can't guarantee you bassinet seats anyway.
At easter we flew longhaul to Malaysia with 4 DC's the youngest of which was 7 weeks old. We knew we were never going to be able to sit together and didn't expect to hog the whole row and take up the two bassinets in the middle (flew Emirates which have 2 in the middle and one either side of aisle on two of the bulkheads)
We had however hoped/expected for my DH and I to sit with the baby with a bassinet and the other DC's to sit behind us. We booked a bassinet, it was confirmed on appoximately 3 occasions, including the day of departure and funny old thing, we didn't get it on any of the 4 flights we took. I wouldn't have minded so much if there were lots of babies on the flights in the bassinets but there were not. There was one other infant in one of them and all the other bulkhead seats were taken by selfish arses with no infants. Really wasn't fun flying that far with a little one on my lap.

On other flights when DC were younger (and when I had less of them!) I regularly flew with either the eldest across the aisle or in the row behind and had no problems.

SoupDragon · 16/06/2009 15:54

Some of you are being unnecessarily rude IMO.

GetOrfMoiLand · 16/06/2009 16:01

Actually, fair play to anyone who flies long haul with young babies, basinette (what a fricking stupid word that is btw) or not. Respeck

hedgiemum · 16/06/2009 21:18

we've done Virgin and BA to HK (sister lives there). BA was better. Virgin would not let us have more than 2 bulkhead seats, so me, baby and DD sat in row 1, DH & DS sat behind us. We thought "fair enough, there must be another family needing a bassinet getting on". Oh no, a couple in their 50's who had booked bulkhead!

It would have been much nicer for us to have 4 seats in a row, as DD and DS wanted to play cards and things together, and I'd have had more privacy for breastfeeding. The cabin crew asked the couple if they would swap; they refused, which was stupid of them as DD is a real wriggler and spilt drinks from their tray-tables twice - while I was breastfeeding, I didn't goad her into it! So then I swapped seats with her and was right by the wife, who kept making pointed comments about "nursing mothers should bring bottled milk onto planes for their babies"! It was hell! (DH leaned over and swore at her, which shut her up...) We experienced something similar on the way back, and also on a trip to the US with Virgin - no family/group is allowed to pre-book more than 2 bulkhead seats (unless they have more than 2 babies with them.) Then other people, who don't necessarily need them pre-book the others, and at check in its too late to get them. The cabin crew were always helpful and apologetic over it. Don't know how they would cope with your situation, OP.

(This was all in premium economy, btw, but I can't imagine they have a different rule than that for economy.)

OP - with a 3-4-3 formation what you will probably end up with is you and 2 year old in bulkhead seats, with older DC just across the aisle slightly back from you, in the row just behind bulkhead, with an empty seat next to them. That seems like the obvious solution to me. There is no way your DC will get bulkhead seats that a parent and baby needs - even if you negotiate that now, then on the day at check-in they will be swapped around. You'll only manage it if there aren't other families needing bulkheads.

hifi · 16/06/2009 21:35

my sister flys regulary with 3 dds and every time she has flown and has not been able to get seats together the crew have not sat her girls next to men, any men.

hifi · 16/06/2009 21:36

i understand the comments about lone males on flights to thailand.

Hulababy · 16/06/2009 21:46

We flew to Czech Republic last year with Easyjet. The 3 children (aged 6,5,3) all wanted to sit together with me and DH and Katz and her DH either side of the asiles. Easyjet staff wouldn't allw us as they said in case of emergency it would not be safe. And that was just across an aise.

Also check what "just across the aisle" means. We flew this year with Virgi and we thought we had seats in a row (all same number)but across ailse - however the 2 seats nearest the window were actually the row behind mine - so we were not across the aisle at all, they were across the aisle and back a row. So do check.

And booking seats online at time of booking seemed to make no difference either - when we arrived to check in our seats had been moved so we no longer had 7 in a row but one set a 3 in the middle, a set of 2 one row behind and across aisle (see above) and the 2 seats behind that.

mumblechum · 16/06/2009 21:58

But Hedgie, maybe they booked bulkheads because they needed extra legroom.

Last time we flew to NY, DH had a broken ankle so we asked for bulkhead seats.

hedgiemum · 16/06/2009 22:33

mumblechum - I accept your point, something like that could have been the case. The frustrating thing is that in premium economy there really isn't much difference in space between regular seat and bulkhead - if it weren't that I needed the bassinet I'd have happily switched with the people seated next to DH.

Thunderduck · 16/06/2009 22:40

I book bulkhead when I can because of the extra legroom and because it's so much more comfortable.

There was a vast difference between the legroom available in a regular seat and a bulkhead seat when I last flew bulkhead. I could stretch my legs out to their full length.
Unless I'm confusing bulkhead with another type of seat.

This is how much room I had

hedgiemum · 16/06/2009 22:53

thunderduck - wow that is loads of space! I'm obviously a mug for paying for premimum economy when this:

www.flickr.com/photos/crankyflier/3261140355/

is typical of the "bulkhead" (maybe not technically so, but don't know what else to call them) in prem econ. More space in front of you as no seat back, but no more real legroom than a standard premium economy.

I think a lot of people book them as more comfortable, without realising if they're traveling in family holiday times, that they are going to end up next to young children.

SleeplessinScotland · 16/06/2009 22:56

Hey! I was cabin crew for 6 years until last year and I can say that you can insist on sitting together if the minor is under the age of 16. The reason they don't accept minors on their own on a flight is in case of an emergency. Some companies accept minors but they are taken care of by crew members. If they can not sit your children with you they will have to allocate a crew member for the entire duration of the flight to look after the child.
BTW: There are 2 basinets on a 3-4-3 or 3-5-3. Good luck!

Thunderduck · 16/06/2009 22:59

I paid premium economy in order to get my bulkhead seat and for the extras.

Even that pic you posted seems to me like much more room than one would get with a regular seat.

Perhaps it does depend who you travel with.