BA or Virgin to US with a 8 month old?

[chandellina]

Hi - I am taking DS to the U.S. to visit family and wonder if anyone has thoughts on which airline is better. We took DS on BA to South Africa when he was 3 months and it was ok, but they weren't much help, and they only managed to find a bassinet at the last minute on the flight back when someone in first class didn't need it.

Virgin seems to guarantee their bassinets will be available. anything else in their favour??

thanks for any tips. this will be my first time flying alone with the little one.

Have flown (to the USA) with DD at 4 months and 9 months. BA can be a bit erratic - they were dreadful on outbound flight, but relatively human on the return flight.

You need to find out what their policy is on allocation of bassinets as it can be on check in, at the gate etc.

Re; travelling. Ditch the buggy and check it on board. When I travelled with DD at same age, there were times when I had to collapse buggy, disassemble it and put through security. Fine, it you have 5 hands. And the baby is supposed to go where?

Get a sling. Much easier.

Have used both BA and Virgin over the years.

Virgin's economy class seats in particular are very grim to sit on for that length of time. BA's seem more comfortable. Also BA crews tend to be older and thus perhaps a bit more professional in dealing with the self loading freight (i.e the passengers). Virgin's aircrew seem to be made up primarily of 20 somethings who are more than happy to chat to each other about their exploits. One drinks run only on Virgin does not make a good service - if you want any more drinks you need to go to their galley.
Their service has declined in recent years whereas once they were seen to be innovative.

Whoever you use check and double check, your 8 month old son may be now too big to use the bassinet. You need to fin dout far more about their seats.

Do not rely on either airline to fully provide food for your son. Take your own foodstuffs for the journey along with a change of clothes for both of you. Change his nappy before boarding the aircraft.

If you use a buggy you can take this to the gate, usually the ground crew will hand it to you upon disembarkation. Tie something bright onto it for easier identification. Some airports, mainly UK ones, will let you keep the child in the buggy - US airports without fail will make you take child out of buggy for buggy to be x-rayed.

BA's website as well is far more user friendly.

agree with a lot of what ilovemydog and attila have said.
I've travelled with both BA and Virgin to the states over the last 15 years and more recently with BA who I found slightly better with smaller kids, ie infants. In particular, they have two kinds of skycot/bassinet. They have the 'normal' flat one that most airlines have but they also do the upright car seat type one which is suitable for older kids.
Agree that you should take your own babyfood/snacks for your little one as they don't always provide any/enough.

Agree with Attila

Virgin staff in econ are the most junior ones so helpfulness is highly variable

At 8mths my LO was too big for the Virgin bassinet

I've not flow Virgin with small children for 7 years now so can't really comment on what they are like now. We always found them absolutely fine though. Flew BA a couple of years ago with ^ month old BabyDragon and they also seemed absolutely fine.

I upgraded us to Premium Economy last year and it was worth every penny for the extra legroom.

DD was 6 months the first BA flight with her. Last year she was 2.5 and there was space for her to roll about on the floor in front of the seats in Premium Economy(we had bulkhead seats).

With BA you will be allocated seats when you book as you are flying with an infant - you can then go and manage your booking online and change your seat allocation to one that suits you.

You can also change the meal allocations online but I don't know if an infant is allocated a meal. On the "manage my booking" link you may be able to allocate him a child's meal although you may still be wise to take your own TBH!

Have flown with both. Found BA marginally more helpful, particularly on a truly ghastly night flight from Toronto to London with a teething, poorly, screeching baby. The stewardesses were really wonderful that time, actually. Virgin were fine when we flew to Florida with them, but it was a fairly calm day flight with a slightly older child.

Definitely BA. I did the flight between london and los angeles 3 times a year from with my 2 for 5 years. BA was light years better than all the others. I always got the bulkhead and a bassinet. The flight attendants were always helpful and understanding. And they always let me bring my buggy onboard. They almost always plucked me out of checkin lines once they spotted me traveling alone with 2 babies and whisked me through ahead of everyone else.

The two times I flew with virgin were awful. They were rude, and unhelpful, gave my seat away (because they claimed I was late (well I wouldn't have been late if I hadn't been waiting in the checkin line for 2 hours!!!) and made me check my buggy and collect it at baggage claim (and lied to me and said it was an airport rule....absolute nonsense).
The only worse experience was with American Airlines...I wouldn't fly them if you paid me.

Also BA seats are larger and more comfortable.

BA have always made me check my buggy so don't rely on that.

BA definitely! Have travelled on both recently to the States with children. Much better in BA.

BA!
We went to NY with 7 mth old DS.
You can book the bulk head seats as soon as you book your tickets (on their website)

We told them at check in about the bassinet and it was fine.

checked in and onto the plain first so could get baby settled before take off.

Took our normal buggy to the door of the plane then a steward took it to luggage, another one brought it out when we landed.

They were great. I would only fly BA now.

thanks for all the advice. Think we will probably go with BA. (price is exactly the same)

I do wonder about the size of the bassinet though - i think it says up to 9 kilos, and DS is a little one - only 7.5 kilos now - but it seemed like a tight fit even when he was 4.5 months.

not sure i fancy that seat thing they have for an overnight flight.

we're not going to bring a buggy at all, as my mum will have one on the other side. so he will be in an Ergo sling for the airport - hopefully won't be a nightmare.

Being able to sit up is usually the cut-off point for air-cots.

But they are handy for putting all your gubbins in during the flight.

Carseat-type things on BA are allocated at check-in on a first come/first serve basis, according to the website, whereas the bassinets can be booked in advance. I would imagine your LO will be too big for the bassinet.

I'm flying with BA with my 11 month old in March and am counting on getting one of those seats. Since I'm travelling on my own, I will need somewhere to put DS down. A friend who travelled with BA recently said her same-age DS slept 9 hours in one of those seats, so it's probably worth getting one even if you don't think you'll use it.

And make sure you get the bulkhead seats, if they don't allocate them to you automatically.

just called BA and they are being so rubbish about what they can offer/what they can guarantee. No guidelines on age/height/weight for their bassinets though based on the previous experience i imagine it will be a bit small. the carseat thing looked pretty awful to me (they set one up for us on SA flight before finding the bassinet) - with no way to block out any light or noise.
oh well, will have to just hope for the best.