Toddler seats on long haul flight

[Donimo]

My husband and I are travelling to South Africa with BA with 20 month old twins and a 5 year (yes maybe we are mad). The flight is a night flight and I'm just praying they all sleep.

I have 2 bulkhead bassinet position seats reserved for my husband and I for the outward and return flights. Then a seat for our 5 year old. So the twins will be on our laps. BA do toddler seats that attach onto the tray that is folded down from the bulk head. My question is has anyone had these seats/used them? And if so we're they easily available or has there been an occassion when there wasn't enough of these seats available? Or have you always been able to get one if needed? (Aware we will be wanting 2 of these for our twins to sleep in 🙏)

Any other tips for long haul travel with a toddler and young child greatly appreciated

have you booked a seat for your toddler? Even with that tray thing I can’t imagine 5 in 3 seats trying to sleep. There are those plane bed things, I think made by stokke for kids that turn a seat into a toddler bed. I think that would be better. I’ve never seen a baby use those bassinet things.

We’ve had one of those before, it was good.

BA were fab for us - the most helpful bit was the crew spotting that we had our hands full, asked me what meal DH and I wanted but then tucked one of them away so we could eat one at a time. Much more manageable in the space!

So far, mine have slept pretty well on night flights. We do lots of walking in the airport to make sure they’re sleepy! I also take plenty of food so that I can feed the kids on their schedule not the airline’s.

Sorry meant toddlers.

these things. I haven’t used as mine are older but seem like a good idea

https://stokkeshop.com.au/products/jetkids-by-stokke-travel-bundle?gclid=CjwKCAiA8NKtBhBtEiwAq5aX2IsMFRxPSa4N9pUtB8-iVX99XXZIvSsvzIYLAM2UkFpWG9LX6viSOhoCEiMQAvD_BwE

BA are really strict on all these devices, including this and the inflatable ones. On every long haul
Flight I've been on I've seen families be told to remove them unfortunately

We used one when we flew with our then nearly 1 year old. Unless your twins are small for their age I'd be amazed if they fit in the baby chairs. BA are a pain and don't allow any form of inflatable footrests and if you're in the bulkhead seats the armrests don't go up so harder for kids to lie over you. I would buy an additional seat if possible.

These are the chairs you get.

www.stokke.com/ct/airline-list.html

We took DS to Australia when he was nine months old. We had a bassinet on the way out and it was already quite a squeeze for him so we had one of the seats (as per @welshweasel photo) on the way back. It was great that we could strap him in when we wanted to eat and he had no bother sleeping in it.

We obviously got one, so I don't remember an issue with availability, but what I would do is literally say to the first crew member you see when you board, (esp because someone senior is normally in that area) "hi, we're sitting in row xx and we'd love two of the toddler chairs please" and don't wait until you're at your seats.

My toddler is small it there’s no way she would have fitted and slept in one of those seats provided by BA at 20 months old. We booked her her own seat and she laid on her seat with her head in my lap to sleep. I would book their own seats and change to regular seats not bill head as then you can put the arm rests up and have them lie on you. Fixed at tests will make it very difficult for the flight.

I flew long haul BA with my daughter when she was about 22 months. I bought her a seat but we also sat at the bulkhead. I asked about the toddler seats as I thought she might be more comfy in one of those than on a normal seat to sleep but was told they only had ones for much smaller babies. I actually regretted sitting in the bulkhead because it made it much harder for her to sleep across my knee as the bloody armrests don’t move. I would definitely buy at least one more seat if I were you!

We always order 1 special meal so it comes first and we weren’t trying to eat together and manage kids.

i never remember having a problem getting a toddler seat and both of mine usually slept pretty well at that age on the flights - we fly to SA at least once a year.

A 20MO won’t fit in the seat thingy. They’re about right for 6-12 months-ish that’s too big for the bassinet but still a proper baby. Can you get 1 extra seat for them to share? At the very least don’t book the bulkheads, you’ll want to lift the arm rests so they stretch out over you. A row of 4 between the 5 of you shouldn’t be too awful though so long as you can put all the arm rests up

At 20months they might be over the weight limit for the bulkhead attachments, be it seats or.cribs. Would recommend ringing BA for a chat maybe?
Can you stretch to seats (or even one seat) for the twins.to make life easier/more comfortable for you all?

We flew long haul with a 20mo (only one, though!) in the seat. He was tall and heavy for his age but still fit and briefly slept in it despite being an otherwise terrible sleeper, but spent most of the time asleep on us or in the sling.

Thank you for the advice all.Yes I know for sure that BA won't allow those inflatables. They are really strict on this. My twins are really small for their age. They are both under the 5 percentile and are under a dietician due to this. Currently in 9-12 month old clothes. Although we have moved them up a car seat size they would still fit in a newborn (size 0) car seat. I've checked the weight limit on BA website (12.5kg) they are 7.3kg and 7.5kg presently and we go next month (so well under the weight limit). So going on @Nickthechick1 said I think they will fit in the seat. Also my girls do all of their naps in a pushchair semi reclined (due to severe reflux in their first year of life and it being the quickest way to get 2 to sleep at the same time). So I think they would be used to sleeping in that sort of position.I would love to buy an extra seat but £1000 is just too much. I have also thought of another option about them sleeping on the floor om some blankets under the 5 year olds feet (they currently fall asleep on the floor at bedtime before we transfer them into a cot). But not sure if this would be allowed.

@welshweasel what age was your little one in the photo you kindly shared?

Can you bring your own car seats? We took one on an Aer Lingus flight when ds was 2. It had to be airline approved and we found a Brittax one that was. It was a bit of a faff but completely worth it.

He was 11 months, average size

They won't let kids sleep on the floor. At those weights you'll probably get away with the chairs, but they only had one on our flight (we were lucky and asked first!)

Thank you @welshweasel I'll ask straight away. And I'm hoping having twins will make the cabin crew take some pity and give us at least one

@TM1979 I won't have the hands to carry car seats onto the plane. With 2 toddlers whom think it hilarious to run in opposite directions and their favourite game is hide and seek. I need my hands free to keep them with us. We are only planning to take a rucksack each so we have free hands through the airport and onto the flight.

If as pp said, some flights only have one of those seats, then it wouldn't hurt to be proactive just in case:

-phone customer services now to understand what the norm is and see if there's any way to have two on your flight given you are traveling with twins
-when you get to check in, ask if there's anything they can do (unlikely)

• when you get to the gate, go straight to the desk (before the gate opens) and ask if there's any way they can ask the ground crew to check or get another one if there's only one.

No idea what would be feasible, but sometimes you get helpful people.

@FoxtrotSkarloey thank you, that's great advice. I do find playing "I have twins, it's hard and could you help" card works a lot of the time. (It is actually hard... so many places are not set up to you having twins). Like the fact the girls have genrrally end sleeping on a mattress on the floor as holiday places never have 2 cots. So people are often willing to help as much as possible.

I'll give customer services a call tomorrow. It doesn't hurt to ask!

We used the bassinet for long haul when dd was 3 months and it was brilliant.

We did long haul when she was 18 months and booked a seat for her. Because she was under 2, she could have sat on our laps but we were glad that we had paid for a seat. She needed her own space but would have been to big for the bassinet.

If they don’t have their own seat where are they going to be when they aren’t sleeping? They will be too big to be on laps all the time and they won’t want to be. Where are they going to play and look at books, or eat their food?