Flying Virgin to NY with three kids. Seat advice requested.

[mamakel]

I'm flying Virgin to NY with DH, DS (6), DS (4) and DS (11 months). We've requested a skycot but I've since read they're quite small and also if we take the bulkhead seats the armrests obv won't go up so I'm fearing it'll be harder for the other two to sleep. Without the skycot the 11 month old will be on my lap! Any thoughts/tips/seasoned travellers advice gratefully recieved.

You may want to rethink the skycot because if baby is too long he won't fit into it. These tend to be used then for storage. I also think that the armrests in that particular bulkhead row are fixed in place also. As it is a daytime flight your elder children may not sleep at all or if they do only briefly.

Baby DS will be on a parent's lap in any event for take off and landing (the crew will give you an extender belt for that purpose).

VAs dimensions of baby cots:

Premium Economy and Economy classes on the A340-300 and B747-400 aircraft:
Maximum weight of baby: 9kg (19.8lb)
Maximum height of baby: 740mm (29”)
Dimensions: 35cm wide x 21cm deep x 74cm long (13.8” wide x 8.3” deep x 29” long)

Premium Economy and Economy classes on the A340-600 and A330 aircraft:
Maximum weight of baby: 11kg (24.25lb)
Maximum height of baby: 760mm (30”)
Dimensions 28.6cm wide x 72.7cm long (11.25” wide x 28.6” long)

www.seatguru.com is a good website re aeroplanes and their seating plans; I would look at that as this would be useful to you.

Thank you, our flight is 5pm so I'm hoping DS #1 and #2 will sleep for a bit. I'll definitely take a look at that site. Have you flown with kids in the bulkheads? What was your experience like?

I don't like the bulkhead seats. The armrests are a pain and the TVs are awkward. Also, they are often near the toilet so there is a queue of people opening and closing a toilet door.

I like a row in the middle of a block.

My experience of the bulkheads is that they'll split you so you only take up one sky cot position if it's a busy flight with several babies. So in my case that meant me (+baby) and toddler in bulkhead and dh sat behind (thanks for that Virgin). Then there was another couple with baby next to us (3-4-3 type seating).
Having said that, I like having the play space in front of us and not having to hunt around under seats to find lost toys.
Also, the virgin travel it we had was more like a bouncer seat than an actual cot and I think would gave been fine for an average 11 month old.

I'd avoid the bulkhead. DH would want it.
I had DS2 (aged 18 mths) in a front carry sling for most of the last long haul flight I had with him. We hired one fron the local sling library (postal hire!), and it was fab. Only time he couldn't be in the sling facing me was take off and landing, when they wanted us both facing forward.

TarkaTheOtter a similar thing happened to us previously where we were split us so that's good to know. I've just looked on www.seatguru.com and it looks like it's a 3-3-3 configuration so I'm going to call to see if the flight is full and if not try booking 2 bulkhead with window and 2 directly behind. addictedtosugar I'm also taking our Ergo sling as back-up as have visions of walking DS3 to sleep. This is all really good to know. We fly tomorrow so I'll let you know how we get on. Thank you!

I would be more worried about arriving in NY at night. It can take ages to get out of the airport and into the city. Not fun with children.

I'm not sure I've ever noticed a skycot on window seats, only in the central seating area?
Hopefully I'm just unobservant!
Have a fab time in NY.