Virgin Upper Class & small children

[jamtomorrow1]

Hello all,

We flew Virgin Upper Class pre-lockdown with my son as a lap infant and it worked brilliantly as he just snuggled down with me and slept most of the way to the US. He is now no longer a lap infant (two years old) and I am wondering about the logistics of keeping him in a seat by himself for take-off, landing and any turbulence. We have flown short-haul with him this year in his own seat and he's been very good but it strikes me that the individual pod set up in Upper Class might create a problem as he won't be able to see much of us and I can't see that he'd stay put either. Has anyone found a workaround or are we better off in Premium Economy until he's a bit older?

Thanks!

I would personally go Premium Economy or fly a different airline with a more toddler friendly seating arrangements in business. It can be a really tricky age for following rules. Only for a year or two though, once they hit 4 or 5 you’ll be fine.

We went business with my three year old. She was good as gold, but there were a few moments I needed to be in close proximity and it was really quite stressful worrying about her kicking off. She didn’t, but I really couldn’t relax which kind of took the fun out of going business in the first place. We were on overnight flights to Asia so she pretty much slept (but I didn’t)

BA set up much better for young kids in business. Having said that we did virgin and they quite liked the pod but I wouldn’t attempt before 3 years old and able to reliably watch a 🍿 film

I think BA would be better in this case. Depending on what plane you fly - they have four business seats in the middle which is perfect for you and your toddler. When I flew to Vancouver last month in business, I saw a woman flying with her son (maybe 3-4) and the seating arrangement was perfect for her! He slept right next to her in his own seat and had full control of him at all times. If that isn’t possible - I’d fly premium!

Virgin Upper Class is far more child-friendly from a logistics point of view that BA Premium Economy.

Yes i was going to suggest BA for the seats but given alex cruz is running it into the ground and the last bisness class meal i had was genuinely inedible (and i am really not that fussy)
I'd go virgin premium economy

@LivingLaVidaBabyShower

Yes i was going to suggest BA for the seats but given alex cruz is running it into the ground and the last bisness class meal i had was genuinely inedible (and i am really not that fussy) I'd go virgin premium economy

Alex Cruz has now left and the new CEO (Sean Doyle) has promised not to replicate him. They’ve reintroduced free foods on short haul flights again. I thought the food I had last month was delicious and nicer than Air Canada’s Signature Business meal!

I would do standard business class. The virgin seats are fantastic for privacy but not very child friendly as you cant always keep a close eye or supervise meals.

Maybe have a look at who flies to your destination and see what the seat configuration is like?

@Hairbrush123 thank you for this!!! I clearly missed that memo. 😅
So happy to hear this as i much prefer a direct flight and used to love BA.
I really hope he has also improved staff conditions too
in 2019 no less than 3 flights i took were delayed because the pilot or senior crew had to disembark to buy food/drinks for the crew as there was none on board!!!

Thanks guys, this is all very helpful. We are in the usual trap of always flying Virgin, so we have Virgin miles, so we will continue to fly Virgin rather than BA. Encouraged to hear that people have had success with pretty young children in the pods. I think we'll go premium economy this time and see how we go. My son has already got the hang of using headphones to watch Hey Duggee on my iPad so perhaps by next year we'll have him sufficiently well trained to manage a whole film!