British Airways Premium Economy vent

[GingerBeverage]

Just venting really, but I've been separated from my 2 year old in the PE cabin for upcoming 7 hour overnight BA flight.
I booked 4 months ago and choosing seats was always listed as significantly extra (c£50 each from memory) so I relied on their family seating policy. I'd already paid to upgrade, it didn't make sense to pay more.
I checked regularly and seats were always chargeable until a week ago I saw they'd been allocated. OK, I'll move them!
Nope. Cabin is fully booked.
Went on chat and was told they can't help, here, follow this link to complain.
Reply via email 5 days later: You shouldn't have used this link, aka shut up and go away.
The specific seats they have given us are next to toilets centre section aisle, centre section middle, and last row next to toilets centre section middle.
So looks like (we are A, toilets are T):
XX AAX XX
TT XAX TT

If we put 2 year old in aisle he will run away. If we put 2 year old in centre he will annoy the stranger next to him. He's going to cry anyway when he sees he's separated from either me or dad. And the two strangers on either side are not going to want to have him clambering over, nor will they want to swap from an aisle (that they probably paid £50 for) to a centre.

And all this will happen next to toilets which will (if he ever sleeps) wake him up.

I've never regretted an upgrade more. If I could go back and choose economy again I'd do it in a flash. There's no amount of extra mm legroom that can compensate for how much I am dreading this experience.

They said to ask to move at the airport but the chances of that helping are slim to zero. I feel sorry for everyone around us.

You're being ridiculous and BA have done nothing wrong.

RTFT 🙄

They're not though. The child is next to a parent.

PP - one parent IS sitting next to the child. They just all wanted to sit together (for free!)

It is the OP, but I do agree airlines are grabby expecting people to pay extra for certain seats. Premium economy already makes the airline a lot of money - it’s their second biggest money making cabin after Club World.

Used to work for them many years ago as crew.
It would be illegal to have a 2yo sat by themselves. In this case the child is sat by one of the parents & that's ok. If you haven't paid for all 3 to be seated together then unfortunately that's a risk you took. I hated having to ask couples who have paid to be seated together if they fancied moving just because some families haven't bothered paying but expect all members of the family to be sat together and then having meltdowns during boarding. As long as the child was sat by a parent then BA is not at fault here. It's you unfortunately

You are paying for the convenience of booking a specific seat. Back in the days before online booking/check in you had to turn up at the airport early to get there for when check in opened in order to get specific seats or be seated together.

there's nothing "grabby" about charging for an optional extra.

I thought you meant none of you are sitting next to him. This is what the charge is for, we paid it when kids were young. Someone might swap. But sure it will be fine

Sorry but I am with BA here; they have done as required. If you did require to all sit together the surest way to do that is to pay to do so.

Is this actually a BA plane you are going to be on?. I ask only as
on BA there are no toilets in PE. They are either located in the Club World section or their World Traveller section which is Economy. PE passengers are expected to use the toilets in WT.

So unfair that we have to pay for the things we want isn't it :(

Look next time upgrade (you’ll appreciate the extra space) and pay for the specific seats. Unfortunately it’s what the majority of parents do now.

Take little treats etc with you and put some effort in to keep him occupied, reading stories, drawing etc - I’ve flown with a two year old and there was absolutely no running down the aisle or annoying anyone else.

I don’t get why you’re venting, you didn’t pay to chose your seats so you get what you’re given. It’s simple really. The child is with a parent so the airline have done nothing wrong. Feel sorry for the other passengers sat around you with your attitude, they’re in for a rough flight!

This is your fault.
Family seating policy means the child will always be with one parent. You cant get all of you together if you dont pay for the reservation. They're not going to give you 3 seats together. They put the child with an adult and then the other adult gets whichever seat is leftover on the plane.

If you want seats for all of you together then you need to pay for it. You cannot ask the people beside you to move as theyll have paid for those seats.

Sorry OP but you are being unreasonable. You have quite a few preferences (not near toilet, you all want to be sat together) so you should have paid for seat allocation.

Also with BA there are a significant number of Bronze, Silver and Gold card holders. Silver and Gold can book seats when they book the flights for free. I am a lowly Bronze but can do it 7 days before depature.

I try and avoid BA but they have the slots. PE isnt worth it imho. There are plenty of airlines who dont charge and on a long flight you really really do need to pay up if they do charge. Not surprisingly the more attractive seats go first and saying a 2 year will run away - to where? There will be carts, people stressed with flying etc. There will be no patience for someone coming on board who was too stingy to pay for seats and doesnt seem to be able to control their child.

I guess its a lesson learned. Its rather like people who moan and moan about RyanAir but everytime I fly with them they are full. Yes, they charge for everything but they are as cheap as chips. They dont try and hid what they are and they are the more popular for it. I wouldnt fly with them long haul in a million years but short haul. Yep - I do!

Exactly. I'd be spitting feathers to be stick next to anyone's 2 year old

There's no way I'd swap an aisle seat to be sat in the middle of a row of 3. Even for £80

How are they breaking the law, they have seats next to each other - parent and child, another adult on a diff row. No biggie.

You're brave taking a 2yr old on a 7 hour flight. I didn't take mine until they were much older and rational.

@GingerBeverage why won’t one of you sit next to your own child, you have 2 seats together?

The thing with PE is it is a small cabin. There is little flexability to move people around. I do wonder how many people actually use it more than once. I have flown it twice over the last 5 years. Once when there was an offer on and once when I got upgraded. I didnt see much difference at all. I can never sleep on planes so having a slightly bigger seat makes little difference to me.

I know some companies insist their employees use it when the flight is over 8 hours. Luckily I didnt have to do the long haul trips but colleagues tell me PE on British Airways is not something they would pay for. There is no lounge access and I dont believe a separate check in at the airport. We are actually flying Virgin PE later in the summer as I needed to use a voucher. That seems to be much better.

We only did premium economy once as it was cheap in one direction but the luggage allowance applied to both sectors so it worked out cheaper than paying for an extra bag. Agree that it's not normally worth paying a lot extra for.

Can you still get Medised?!

It’s likely that PE will be full, but economy quite empty, so you could always move there and stretch out. This has happened to me with BA flights to/from New York, Beijing and Atlanta.

Madame no, Medised was banned a few years ago, due to some parents using it to drug their children un-necessarily when they weren't ill which meant they could also be giving them too much paracetamol or too much antihistamine.