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.

If my 2 year old had to be sandwiched between two parents in order to behave, I would want a cast iron guarantee that would happen so I would have forked out for the seats. But as it's an overnight, I'd make sure he was knackered and pray he sleeps.

Agree that it's not unreasonable they've allocated two seats together. If they allocated whole families together the only people paying the extra money they're after would be childless adults. You might get lucky and have someone agree to swap. The middle middle seat is my most hated but if there was extra leg room in that front seat I'd take it.

It's a 3 seat formation?

That means the person who's sat next to your 2 year is going to swap like a mother fucker

I thought this was going to be a single adult sat separately from a 2 year old. But wait, there are 2 of you... So this is a complete non issue.

Enjoy your trip.

I've been around 3 of them. Including as a single parent with two older children. You don't let them run about the plane unattended, you control them, go with them, make sure they don't cause any kind of hazard or inconvenience. Basically, you parent them.

I absolutely wouldn't be if it meant I would then be in a middle seat! I'd rather keep my aisle seat next to the kid.

If you know your child has to sit between you and your partner in order to behave shouldn't your priority have been to pay for seating together rather than paying for premium economy?
I have a 4 year old and a baby and yes I would struggle if my DH wasn't sat by us on a plane. Which is why paying to ensure we are sat together is one of our priorities. Your priorities are all wrong here and that isn't the fault of BA. Before looking at your seat map I honestly expected your child to be sat completely on his own, not that you had 2 seats together. And don't be a twat to the passenger sat next to you, it's not their fault either.

Lesson learned, will never upgrade again.

That’s the lesson you learned?

Surely the lesson is, if you want seats together you pay for that as per their policy?

I think it’s outlawed now. Bloody marvellous stuff though, saved us many a time.

Lesson learned, will never upgrade again. Will just have to relax and let whatever happens happen. I’m sure the stranger sitting next to him will be sanguine too.

Lesson learned not.

Nah OP, you don't "let whatever happens happen" . You give it a good old go at the parenting stuff. You know, entertaining, distracting, coaxing. All that shit. You don't just kick back and watch.

Tbh I get you're frustrated by the outcome of the seats. It wasn't what you had in mind. And not many people relish flying with toddlers but you really lost me at that last pouty, foot stampy, not my fault post.

Tbh, this setting is kind of best, I think. You can take turns looking after your dc, and one can rest while other parent is keeping dc in control.

I’m sure the stranger sitting next to him will be sanguine too

Then parent him and put him in the aisle seat so he doesn’t bother anyone else. If I were that stranger and he was a nightmare I’d ask you to swap seats with your child.

😂😂

I am not sure you have learned a lesson based on your comments.

The PE cabin is quite small and you need to book seats, especially if you're travelling at peak time. Every time we get on now there seems to be a attempt to shuffle and we just sit tight. You don't get a refund if you've paid and booked and I don't want to swap, I want to sit next to my family.

The Traveller plus on the BA A380 is a huge cabin. I hated working in it!

You seem to think you’re hard done by, but you’re actually a horrible selfish person- you’re going to let the person in the other seat suffer because you’re petulant that you didn’t get your own way when you were too cheap to pay to reserve seats- I hope you “lovely” holiday

Obviously the OP or her husband is sat next to their child. However, no law would be broken if they were sat in three rows.

If OP was in row A, her husband was in B and the child in C, that would be acceptable as per the guidelines.

Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children. Copied from www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Before-you-fly/Making-a-booking/Airline-seating-allocations/

On initial reading I thought your DC was going to be on their own, but now see they will have at least 1 parent next to them. I'm not seeing an issue with this. If you wanted all 3 of you to be guaranteed to sit together, you should have coughed up the cash to book the seats.

Not for a middle seat they won’t.

Lesson learned, will never upgrade again. Will just have to relax and let whatever happens happen. I’m sure the stranger sitting next to him will be sanguine too.

This is a classic case of entitlement. You had the opportunity to pay to sit all together. You knew the risks, this is almost always going to be the outcome if you don’t pay to reserve seats together because of course anyone paying to reserve seats
is going to chose window or aisle and not a random middle seat.

Not sure what paying for an upgrade has to do with it. You could have been in the same situation with getting separated in economy.

Don't see a problem. Child is next to an adult. You didn't want to pay for choosing your seats, but want to choose your seat?

You know what if you cant control your child tomaybe you shouldnt be going at all-sickness aside theres no reason why a child should be running about or climbing over other passengers

Your fault here pay for seats in future like everyone else. You seem very entitled that the airline should go out of its way to accommodate you because you chose to have a child and then chose to go on holiday.

Pay for seats next time and I wouldn't swap for you because i hate middle seats

You're*