Are BA really crap or am I just unlucky?

[ginso]

Having a total nightmare with BA. 4 weeks plus ago I booked my bulkheads for travelling with my 7 monther to Boston. All confirmed. Last night suddenly discovered they have switched planes and reallocated us all non-bulkhead seats. Have spent hours on phone to BA customer relations trying to rectify and am having no joy and we fly on Wednesday. Cannot face the thought of 7 hours with baby on lap, not sleeping and screaming cos so tired. Shall I kill myself now or is there hope?

PS is immigration in Boston after luggage pick up or do we get to have stroppy tired toddlers without buggies while we wait too? Can't wait for my holiday.

what pisses me off with BA is that everyone can book their seat on the plane in advance (on the internet) other than those with children! I mean that's just bloody brilliant because travellers who actually need to sit together to make the journey more bearable are families yet they (for safety reasons - the 'only so many children in a row' reason) are the last to get seats.

ask them who has the bulkhead - when they did this to us, it turned out they had allocated it to those with the youngest babies (still not the greatest idea but at least it seemed fairer than just giving it some bloke who wanted more legroom).

We had a similar struggle recently, they put me + baby in bulkhead, DH and DS1 in the row behind. We just asked the stewardesses to try to sort it out, and they did.

In theory, bulkhead is only meant to go to people with a "valid" reason for it. Generally, this can only be arranged via your travel agent (ours was Expedia, who didn't even understand the idea of bulkhead seats, so they were rubbish). Your only hope is the checkin person, really - I'd try to check in very early.

Immigration is always before luggage pick up, everywhere I've been. If the plane isn't too full, BA will put the buggies in a closet. This is a bit hit-and-miss though. When we landed in Montreal, with a very very tired baby and three-year-old, they whisked us through a special queue, to stop the whinging.

Agree with NQC - check in as early as possible and ask the check-in staff to allocate you the bulkhead. IME they will never guarantee bulkheads in advance anyway - purely for this reason, ie. they will prioritise them for families with young babies. As foxinsocks says though, if there are more babies than there are bulkhead seats, I believe that the youngest will take priority.

If you don't get any joy with the check-in desk, then ask again at the gate.

we have just come back from a holiday to Florida where we flew with BA, first flight with BA. 4 of us flying, 2 adults, 1 3 year old and 1 18 month old. We paid for a seat for the 18 month, we werent allowed to pre-book seats, they dont allow that with children, only bulk head and we werent allowed a bulk head as we had paid for a seat for the 18 month old. They didnt have any childrens meals on board because of the problems with their catering co, by the way this was last week! And they would not put the milk that I was carrying into the fridge, apparently they arent allowed. Which I think its abosultly ridiculous, we flew to Oz with Emirates in Nov and they stored 3 pints of milk for me, BA just didnt want to know. They did store the buggy in the cabin so that made things a lot easier. But other than that I woudlnt rate them for child friendlyness

Think you are right about check in being only hope. We were leaving at 6.30am to get to Heathrow for c. 7.30am for 10.55am flight, so if M25 clockwise roadworks are as bad as usual, will probably get there late anyway... Luckily have developed stress-related insomnia due to seating woes and waking at 4am, so can rouse household and be off earlier. Really wish we'd booked Emirates or a US airline that everyone says are better

don't think Emirates are better we had booked bulkhead for our flights months in advance when we got there, they had reallocated them and even better put my DSaged 4 on a seat on his own away from his Dad and I was allocated a middle row seat 20 rows away with 3 month old DD!! my firends fl emirates all time and have loads of issues with them....

Immigration is before baggage pick up - but you should be able to request for it to be available at gate on arrival.
First time we flew to Boston with BA they were brilliant (sorry, no consolation for you!)

By all accounts, the American airlines are rubbish.

Another option maybe worth considering - I think you can check in, in person, 24 hours before the flight. Unfortunately, all the travellers have to be there to do it, so you'd have to take all the little ones ... but if any time the afternoon before is practical, that would get you checked in early, luggage all gone, and you'd just have to get yourselves and your carry on to the airport.

Dear ginso,

I have had terrible experiences with BA. I fly a lot for work and take my DS with me. They moved our seats on a flight to Sydney when he was 10 months old, left us stranded at Tokyo airport for 9 hours with no explanation/information, have delayed every shuttle I have caught in the last 2 years and have changed their mind about buggies/luggage for children every time I have travelled with them.

I find them inefficient, rude and completely uninterested in children. As a result, the company I work for now refuses to place any business at all with BA, and we place up to £2m per year in flights. I thoroughly recommend Virgin, Singapore, Gulf and Thai.

mancmum you have got me worried now. We are flying to OZ with Emirates at Christmas. We flew BA last time and they were terrible. I have phoned Emirates direct already though and they have allocated us seats - couldn't give us bulkheads as the boys are 5 & 3. I wouldn't like to be the passengers sitting in front of us!!!!!!

Hi stripey, I use Emirates to Dubai 3 or 4 times a year and have always found them good. They are patient with children and have quite good meals for them.

Thanks ediemay I have heard they are a good airline hopefully the journey won't be as bad as it was with BA we had only male stewards and they didn't help us at all last time.

We had that last time we flew BA - pre allocated seats were "extra legroom" ie.emergency exits, even though they knew we had 2 kids . We queroied it with the check in staff who assured us it was fine. But once aboard aircraft , surprise, surprise we are told we can't sit there. Fortunately we were able to swap without too much fuss and still sit together but with less legroom.

Another time we've had dd - then 3 - allocated a seat on her own.

The service you get on BA depends entirely on the whim of cabin staff as far as I can see. One time I was in club with dd on the way back from Morocco (had some upgrade vouchers) - they were vile to dd who was quiet and polite and certainly didn't drink too much. Her only crime was being young. On the other hand we and our 4 kids were upgraded on way back from JFK to traveller plus and the steward was fab.

Dh travels twice a week with them and we complain quite often. On another flight from JFK dd's kids meal was given to someone behind us so they gave us a bottle of champagne - she was 5!! During the food strike our children were not offered a drink, even water, although dh and I were given water and coffee. We only fly with them for the airmiles.

Apparently it's illegal for children to be seated more than 2 rows away from their parents - had this from v experienced cabin crew. Worth kmowing if you're very late for a Ryanair flight.

hi stripey, hope it goes ok. DS was thrilled last time on Emirates because he got a purple digital watch in his lunch box!

I have had a bad experience with BA and vowed never to fly with them again. Argument over a buggy being stored but I won't go into it all.

Unfortunately I had to bite back my words as we fly to London every year to visit family. It actually works out cheaper for us to fly directly into Heathrow rather than flying into Gatwick/stanstead and then getting a train into London. Usually this means that we have to fly BA, which I loathe doing but it all comes down to money for us.
I've tried Ryanair, easyjet etc, but once buying tickets for 4 and then getting the train in it's not worth the hassle.

We're flying down to London on Thursday with BA and I'm hoping and praying that everything will go smoothly. the check in staff can be so snotty sometimes and every different person has a different rule it seems. In Glasgow I asked if they wanted to see all our passports as ID, as we'd been told to bring ID for the whole family. No I don't need to see it I was told. But flying home again from London they want to see them. Not a problem as we have them with us but I wish they were a bit more consistant.

hi Linnet, I used to have to use BA to fly into London but now use British Midland or jet2.com - loads better and no buggy fights!

I usually try to fly BMI when we're going to London as I prefer them, but the last couple of times it's been cheaper to fly with Ba, ggrr.

Our flight on Thursday is to Gatwick as we are flying out of Gatwick on Friday morning to Florida, with Virgin who I've never flown with before but I've heard good things. Sadly BMI don't fly to Gatwick

Hve a lovely time and ignore BA. Virgin are great

Ginso,

Unfortunately BA are well within their rights to change the type of aircraft used (have had this happen to us too and I now know why this occurs;) this often happens due to lack of demand or a plane being taken off another route and this particular one replaces it.

The buggies you use should be on the jetway upon exiting. You may have to wait a short time but more often than not they are usually there.

Virgin offer the service suggested by NQC (checking in the night before) but do not think BA do this.

Immigration is always first then luggage pick up.

For your sake also I would ensure that all the green visa waiver forms and the one passport form are fully completed and correct. One will have to be completed for each member of your party regardless of age (you can sign the form for each of your children).

BTW if you go onto BA's website and fill in the API's (advance passenger information) for each member of your party this will also save time at check in.

If you read airlinequality.com some people don't think very much of Virgin either (main complaints are with standard of service shown by cabin crew and inflight entertainment) as well as the American based carriers.

Re foxinsocks's comment I have found that I can allocate three seats in a row (not the bulkhead ones though) from the time of booking. Half the preallocated seats are allocated in this manner. One thing you cannot do though with children is use BA's on line check in facility.

Inflight entertainment on VIrgin is great on Ruby Tiesday or Birthday Girl (and prob other aircraft) but not so good on some of their others. It's their food I have a problem with. We flew them four times this year (return x 2 to LA) and it was the same choice of food on every flight: beef in barbecue sauce (yuck), veg cannelloni or salmon (which smeltt v fishy, so much so DD sat with a Virgin Vie wipe across her nose to cut out the smell). A 'caesar salad' (small amt of lettuce, one cherry tom and a bit of grated parmasan), key lime pie. No variation whatsoever.

Their cabin crew were great though.

Haven't flown BA since 1997 when DD was 3mo and they were great then.