No bassinet seat on BA to Australia - premium economy waste of money

[Pooli]

Has anyone else booked a bassinet seat only to find that when they board the plane they are now seated without a bassinet?

I recently flew to Sydney via Singapore on BA premium economy. Don't waste your money. I booked it so that I would have more room to breast feed. The ticket was double the price of an economy seat ticket.

Reasons not to book premium economy:

1. the seats are not that much bigger than the economy seats
2. there are no arm rests so you cannot move the seats together with your other half
3. there are only two bassinet seats in premium economy class and they over book the seats. You have a much greater chance of being bumped off your bassinet seat
4. the cabin class is much smaller so much more unlikely to have a seat next to you free

Overall very disappointed with BA.

The bassinet seats are never guaranteed.

I don't think any of your points should have come as a surprise really.

Well, it came as a surprise for me, and perhaps others aren't as well travelled as you are?

And if the bassinet is not guaranteed, then there is no point spending more than an economy ticket when flying long-haul. It's a waste of money getting anything else if you end up without a bassinet.

In this particular case, BA sent me a booking email with the bassinet seat booked with the words "confirmed" on it. I have that in writing - yet when I boarded the aircraft they put me in a non-bassinet seat. Surely, you would find that surprising?

In any case, if you don't agree, fair enough - but you could end up wasting your money like I did.

Why would there be no point booking prem ec? We are off to Florida next year and will be 'booking' the bassinet and sitting in premium economy. I want the extra space and wider seat. Especially if I end up with baby on my knee cause we don't get the basket.

The small cabin is a bonus I think because there are less potential babies competing for the bassinet seat.

But you booked it to have more space to BF, not for the bassinet

The fact that it was premium economy makes no difference.

4) the cabin class is much smaller so much more unlikely to have a seat next to you free

LOLOL. So, a downside of premium economy is that you couldn't get a free extra seat? Really?

I just snorted my coffee at point 4 about empty seats.

I am really sorry but to me you didn't research properly and I can't believe you even gave thought to their being an empty seat next to you!

It's nothing to do with BA. It is down to your research really.

You know you can book a bassinet seat in economy? They aren't a luxury permitted to those flying premium economy or higher. On all flights you can request a bassinet or bulk head seat but they are not obliged to give you one.

Interesting points - thanks everyone.

A few things:

a) We think BA is worse than other airlines because they took us off a bassinet seat after confirming we had it. I.e. we have written confirmation that we have the bassinet in premium economy, and they took that away and don't feel they have done anything wrong. Most other airlines would honour their commitment here, BA does not. We agree that at the point of booking the bassinet is not guaranteed, but once you have selected the seat and have it confirmed - that is different. Why is someone else getting your seat when they didn't have it confirmed?

b) Between a knee and bassinet matters less for shorter trips. Ours was a 30 hour flight with a flight offload and re-board. A 10 hour trip somewhere with a child on the knee is one thing - extend that 3x and the value of a bassinet becomes fully apparent.

c) The probability of a getting a spare seat next to you IS higher in economy. The premium seats are limited, and usually full. In economy, there are a lot of people who avoid the front seats because they know there could be a baby there. So yes, it is an advantage of economy that you have a higher chance of a spare seat. That is subtly different to expecting a spare seat in premium economy. We did not expect that - but if you want to maximise the chances of a spare seat, economy is better. Perhaps we did not express ourselves as well as we could have and we are sorry for that.

What we suggest is that next time you are on a semi-full flight, have a look whether the premium economy bassinet seat has a spare seat next to it, then check with economy bassinet seats. You'll notice that it is far more common in economy.

It's fine if you disagree, and also if you are wealthy enough that paying for premium economy is not a major strain, then that's different too. But for the bulk of mums out there who have to watch their finances, we think premium economy is a waste of money, especially with BA. A bassinet seat in economy gives you a lot of space up front anyway, so why pay 50%+ more for a lower chance of getting one?

They will confirm bassinet but can't guarantee as obv things change

Ie if there is 2 bassinets only and 2 people book, but then last min a family with a sick baby needing oxygen book, then obv they will get one and one of the first two will loose one

Or 2 bassinets and one baby throws up on one on journey to the uk. Meaning there's now only one returning to say Australia.

Premium economy on ba is just a very slightly larger foot space and seat. It clearly says that in the website and class you travel has nothing to do with bassinets

The easiest way to travel long haul with baby is to buy own seat and take car seat that's allowed. Ie the maxi cosi pebble is allowed on planes on seats. You only have to have on lap for take off and landing. Obv costs more but that's your choice. Comfort and pay more or just cope on lap.

Best way with baby is first with lay flat beds as then can all snooze. Your choice again

The bassinets are not guaranteed. Nor are any booked seats. They couldn't be as all sorts of things can change. Flights get delayed or cancelled. People miss their connections. Hundreds of flights from hundreds of places every day.

You just have to go with the flow. Lots of people fly with babies. Often without another adult.

I just flew 29 hours with my two children and the TVs didn't work the whole way. Not fun.

Savoy - dh took kids to Dubai over Easter. Just flew back with no entertainment/ tvs working and 3 hrs delay on plane before take off! Ie 3 hrs of toddlers just sitting in plane seat waiting for it to leave. Then 7 1/2 hr flight

Nightmare! At least we were moving!

We were on Emirates too so that's interesting. The staff were all 'oh, this never happens' which I didn't believe at the time.

I have heard the way bassinets work/allocated is that the youngest babies get them first. If they have all gone by the time say your 12 month old filters through the system then that's the way it is.

"We agree that at the point of booking the bassinet is not guaranteed, but once you have selected the seat and have it confirmed - that is different".

Actually it is not because they can still change the aircraft type on the day of departure. Its called operational reasons.

We had assigned PE seats and these were all altered prior to boarding the plane.

Most flights particular in PE and on long haul are full (to bursting). (Infact every single time I have been in PE longhaul its been full with no spare seats). When that scenario happens people do get moved around as a result. Even in economy the chances of getting a free seat next to you anyway is still very small.

You obviously don't travel by air much.

Bassinets - like any seats/special meals/extras - are not guaranteed, they will confirm your request but no more. Even if you pay extra for extra-legroom they can move you, even if you pay extra to reserve a certain seat. If you can travelling long-haul with a baby the only way to guarantee they are not on your lap is to buy an extra seat and take your own car seat for it. Don't cheap-stake out of it and then complain that you didn't get your COMPLIMENTARY bassinet. Most airlines and travel agents point out that there is no guarantee on the bassinet seats.

On most flights WT is full or nearly full and WT+ is usually the same. It's only in C and F that you stand a good chance of getting an empty seat. You are unlikely to get a spare seat in the bulkhead (bassinet row) unless you are on a very empty flight as this row gets filled up with people who want the slightly extra legroom (and often pay to pre-book), frequent fliers, those with disabilities and those who want to able to get in and out easily.

Don't blame BA for your lack of research or your sense of entitlement.

Agree BA premium economy is not much better than cattle class. I remember and overnight back from Toronto last year with the entertainment pack digging painfully into my leg for the duration. I am not very tall so extra legroom was wasted on me.

However, I was upgraded to ba business class on the way there. It was wonderful.

First let me say thank you to those contributors who have made useful and polite comments. A few have been surprisingly aggressive. This is a forum for mums to share ideas and experiences, not to attack one another. It's a shame not everyone approaches it that way.

The key point is this - how much easier would it be for families traveling if they could rely on the airline to say whether or not they had a bassinet seat? There are a certain number of bassinets - they know this when they are booking you in. Sometimes there is a mess up, but it should be very rare.

The most common reason people get bumped is overbooking. This was true in our case as well. BA booked us into a bassinet seat and then sold the same seat to another mum. They didn't have to do that - they could have said "that bassinet is already taken, but here are other options". To bump me from the seat I had confirmed was purely BA choosing to profit over service.

I simply don't think my expectations are too high if I want a company to deliver on a promise that they made to me in order to sell me a ticket.

Many airlines offer some sort of compensation if they bump you - I know in the US they warn you the flight is overbooked and try to find volunteers with vouchers. That wasn't our experience with BA. Maybe we were unlucky, but their attitude is basically "we got you from point A to point B and that's all we ever promise we will do - too bad you didn't get what we promised you".

ArtandCo - if you were delayed by 3 hours to a destination within the EU the airline must compensate you unless they can show that the delay was due to factors out of their control (weather, manufacturer malfunction etc). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004.

Iv no idea why it was delayed, I think due to air traffic control on strike somewhere. Anyway it was Dubai so not in the EU. They fed the kids 100s of mars ice creams whilst waiting for a free slot on runway!

We were offered £2100 to offload just a few weeks ago with BA so I disagree that compensation isn't their policy.

This is my recent experience so now there are evidently 3 airlines to avoid especially if you are travelling with a baby: Air Canada, BA and United Airlines!

Having just flown to Orlando here are a couple of airlines to avoid if you are travelling with a baby and/or small children. This is because they do not appear to care about you at all even when it was booked a year in advance so here goes:

Air Canada had no bassinet although one was requested and also travelling with a 5 and a 3 year old we were allocated seats in 3 separate rows meaning that my 5 year old was seated on his own for this overnight flight; flew out with United Airlines and again no bassinet available although we believed it was reserved.

Here is a part of the email received from them about this: "United Airlines offers bassinets on select international and transcontinental flights for infants weighing 22 pounds (10 kg) or less. A request for bassinet can be made when reservation is made, but please understand bassinet requests cannot be confirmed. Please visit united.com for more details."

So even if you believe you're booked one it is not confirmed thus making it difficult for you to know what will happen on the flight. I really think that if you reserve one then it should be confirmed, or you are told that sadly there are only 2 available on each flight and these are already booked. I least then you know where you stand.

I am not surprised. I hate BA. We we were qantas club gold members until recently. Booked a qantas flight to Tokyo and due to partnership with BA and under booked flight, BA took over the Qantas flight. We paid hundreds of pounds a year for our membership so that we could have benefits such as more baggage allowance etc but when we arrived, we were surprised to find our Qantas flight was now a BA flight and BA would not honour our excess baggage allowance with our membership (even though we booked a Qantas flight! Not our fault they took over!) so we ended up paying hundreds more pounds in excess baggage (something ridiculous like 30 pounds per extra kg!!!)
The BA attendant was so rude and the whole experience felt more like Ryanair.

Sadly nothing is guaranteed. Last year I flew with a disabled dh and a baby and we were moved from confirmed bulkheads that we desperately needed to the middle of the back row. Dh is tall and paraplegic so could not fit into these seats. After much arguing they moved just him, but then nobody was available to help him up from his seat to the toilet, eat or operate the screen. Miserable journey.

Most airlines give bassinet seats to the youngest babies on board. If your baby was bumped for another then I don't think you can complain, otherwise it is fair to be annoyed.

Be my that is so appalling I would have written to every known publication! Disgusting.

We returned with Asiana last week from sydney via seoul..... they have a 'happy mom service' on all their routes. I would recommend them.

We did pre-book bassinet, and of course it is never guaranteed, but we got it on all 4 flights to and from.

Negatives :planes a bit clapped out and old, food hit and miss, and not on demand entertainment with limited stuff for kids.

Positives: you check in in your own line with business class, so no waiting, they are trained to help with kids and are generally really nice and helpful to parents, we got the bassinet even though our ds is massive and just about crammed in it (with some little persuasion), the kids food is okay, Korean people seem to love kids..so lots of doting on my two during the flight, and the seoul to sydney and sydney to seoul legs are really empty so we got a few extra seats (the seoul-london-seoul full though). because planes are old fit out, there is lots more room as seats and especially bulk heads are spaced out.

I would fly with them again, and recommend them as a way of getting to Australia or Asia. They do a free stop over with nice hotel on way back as stopover is about 19 hrs which really breaks up the journey - obviously not good if you are in a rush though.

worst thing was lack of on demand entertainment system for my 4.5 yr old, but if you have a tablet, this really isn't too big a deal.