recommendations (or not!) for long haul flights

[MacCallum]

Hello This is my first post but I was so angry I thought I should share what happened to us with you so that hopefully you don't encounter such problems/treatment.

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.

tbh MacCullum there are threads on here about this being most peoples experience on a number of different airlines. the sitting together with your 5 and 3 year old can be overcome by paying for booked seats. I know its not reasonable to ask people to do this but this is how airlines keep their prices down by charging for something that used to be free. at the moment bassinet requests are free with most airlines but this will be the next thing that they charge for as it always comes on an extra legroom seat that they can now sell for a premium. not fair but if you want it now you have to pay for it.

All airlines are the same with bassinets. There are very few of them and they are in some sort of priority basis. I've been told before it's youngest first.

Can you pre-book seats on air canada? They used to be free with normal airlines but I've noticed you've to pay for them now. DH is now on a flight to NZ and qantas charged £25 for advanced seat booking. It's a rip off but better than flybe which did not even allow us to pre-book seats if we want to pay. We booked via thomas cook, and our tickets ddin't show up on the airline website. We were so worried we'll have to sit separately with our 2yo. (She wouldn't sit in her seat at all and we got majorly told off by a flight attendant who gave us BS about safety and why she must remain in her own seat. We didn't want to be thrown out of the flight so didn't challenge her and told her better airlines provide 5-point harnesses and a child seat for someone her age).

Oh and I was told the only guarantee you'll get a 'bassinet' is buy another seat and take your own car seat. If that's what you really wanted, you could have paid.