BA flight with 3 kids

[ILoveGregoryHouse]

I'm flying from Bahrain to Heathrow next month. Will be 24 weeks pg and have three under 6s with me although my parents are on the same flight but not the same booking reference.

I just got an email from BA saying we can reserve our seats in advance for £25 each. I thought about it but then realised that surely they have to seat us together anyway due to civil aviation rules so I should just save my money. Is that right? If so, what about the poor people who do pay and then end up being moved anyway?

Thanks for any advice.

I forgot to book seats on jet2 a couple of weeks ago. They said that they would have to seat me and my two dcs together at the check in desk but that they would have to sort it out on the plane.

When we got on the plane everybody refused to give up their seats. So dd (4) ended up sitting next to a grumpy man and ds (8) was put with a couple of teenage girls. I got to sit on the emergency exit about six rows away. It was a stupid and dangerous thing for the stewards to do as in an emergency I would not have been opening the door and jumping out I would have been heading the wrong way to get my children. However the grumpy man had to put up with dd shouting "Mummy! - I'm going to be sick!" every ten mins and the girls got to play mario with ds on his ds. I had a rather relaxing flight with extra legroom.

So I would book if I were you - just for peace of mind. And, as you said, so that other people who have paid will not have to move.

Ilove its a difficult one. I'm flying with BA to LHR from KSA in 2 weeks and have been looking into this. We'd booked (last year) and had confirmed the bassinet for our infant. We have however now found that although myself, the baby and DD (aged 3.5) are in the bulkhead with bassinet, DH is sitting behind us. When we phoned up the person (indian call centre) that DH spoke to claimed it was BA policy to only allow one adult to sit with kids in bulkhead row. It is not in fact their policy (BA have confirmed this) but say we will have to try to change it 24 hours before or at check in as seat next to me and DD already allocated.

Their policy is that they TRY to sit families together. However, as your parents are on a separate booking, they will not take them into account. They will try to sit you and your DC together if at all possible.
CAA regulations are seemingly quite vague and they seem to think that seating you across an aisle from your DC is acceptable. If I were you I'd push for you to be all together (do you have an infant? if so, ask for bassinet although you should have already booked this) and they perhaps pay to have your parents sitting near you?

Have a look at your booking (manage my booking on their website) It may already show which seats you and your DC have been allocated, ours was shown 4 weeks prior to departure. You will then have an idea as to whether to pay to move your parents.
I think it is a form of blackmail for them to do this but I know from other threads that others disagree. I suppose we should just be thankful that they are actually flying on our departure date

From BA Website ref choosing a seat and whether you have to pay:

Passengers travelling with infants
Free from the time of booking.

If you do not choose a seat, we will allocate you a suitable one 3 days before departure.
Not applicable

Passengers travelling with children aged 2-12 years
If you do not choose a seat, we will allocate you a suitable one 3 days before departure.

If the group cannot be seated together, each child will be seated with an adult at least.
Pay £20/€25/$30 to choose your seats from the time of booking up to check-in, 24 hours before departure.

Pay £50/€60/$75 for exit row seats between 10 and 4 days before departure. (Children under 12 years cannot sit in exit row seats.)

I'm travelling with 3 children and am reluctant to hand over £200 extra to BA so we can sit together. I am tempted to book the outside 2 of a set of 4 and hope no one is stupid enough to book the middle 2 or insist on sitting there.

Its not fair is it. As if we are not paying them enough!
Surely you have some aged 2 - 12? If so, then under the rules on their website they SHOULD allocate you 'suitable' seats 3 days before.

BTW, anyone know if BA give out any goodies for kids to keep them entertained?

Can't remember BA having things for the kids, but Virgin definitely do...

Re goodies, they got a Paddington bear suitcase (little cardboard thingy, very sweet) last year, with colouring book and crayons.

I think I might do it, but it's an extra £100 on top of the £2000 we've already paid (it's premium economy). DS3 will be 2 two days before we fly so not considered an infant now.

Grrr to the whole thing. I hate flying and had a lovely dream about them building a railway all the way from Bahrain to London. That'll never happen!

ilovemydog excellent, flying Virgin to Florida in October as we are not flying BA anymore after this next trip.

IloveGreg (LOTS OF LOVEY PEOPLE ON HERE TODAY!) that sounds good. We Normally do a night flight back to the UK but the BA one is a daytime flight so wasn't sure whether to take lots to keep the little darlings occupied.
Its not fair to make you pay more.
Agree about the flying. I just wish someone flew to LGW from here as its much nearer to our house and LHR is a pain to get to/from.

We're hoping to go to Seattle for Thanksgiving and possibly Hawaii . We're in Bristol, and it's cheaper to go to Amsterdam to Seattle . The eco worrier in me is appalled, but at the same time, have done various routes with the kids and KLM is soooo civilized

hmmm, have ot say our experiences wiht BA have not been good, seating wise.

best (worst?) one was 2 years ago, flying to USA - me, dh, d1, then 3 (and ASD), and dd2, about 14 months.

we were flying business, and booked seats in the upstairs cabin, plus bulkhead seat for dd2.

phoned up to sort out meals (always a nightmare - dds are multiple intolerant), and found out that BA had, in their wisdom, reallocated our seats.

Not only that, they had moved dd1 downstairs, by herself. and then tried ot tell me that she couldn't be moved back upstairs, as it was now full, bit that we could moved downstairs with her, but no bulkhead seat for dd2, as that was full...

apparently, since dd1 was booked in as disabled (for extra help at airport in USA while waiting for buggy back form luggage reclaim), that meant she couldn't sit upstairs, regardless of the fact that she isn't physically disabled.

Got her moved back again aftera huge fuss, only ot find they kept re-seating her downstairs.

Ended up having to call them every 3 days or so, for weks before our flight, to keep making sure she was sat with us,even after they removed thedisability tag.

was a real nightmare.

ilovemydog Aloha very

silverfrog what a nightmare. How bloody ridiculous to try to sit your DD so far away from you.

We last flew BA 2 years ago when we went business class to the states when DD2 was an infant. They cocked up our bassinet request as had put us in row 1 but 'forgot' that in that cabin the bassinets were in rows 8 and 11 (I think?) We were pretty lucky in that another family agreed to swop rows with us.

Have decided not to rock the boat in trying to get DH moved into our row. Knowing our luck we'll lose the two bulkhead seats we have. DD (and probably DS) will kick off about daddy not being with us so once seat belt sign off we will just move him forward and she can take it in turns sitting on our laps.

I noticed a few days ago that despite requesting and have confirmed twice a childs meal for DD it wasn't there so have booked that online.

iloveGregory have you confirmed childrens meals? You can do it online in 'manage my booking' Make sure it is down at least a week before.

We are flying Virgin to the states but for some reason it had to be done on two bookings as 2 DC in UK at boarding school and agents here wouldn't let them go on same booking. No doubt we will then have to pay to sit together as on two separate bookings. These airlines make a lot of money out of all these extra charges.

I would bite the bullet and pay although I think its just another way of BA to make cash.

BA usually provide a sturdy cardboard Paddington bear case with some playing cards, a comic and a pencil case (with pen) in it. Its not much but it looks nice and its better than nothing.

Have only avoided paying for seats in advance because I am a silver card holder via their Executive Club. I feel their charges re seat allocation are excessive and apply to all cabins I think except First.

I have previously read that during strike periods childrens meals will not be available. Would not rely on them to fully provide re childs' meals anyway; have seen them run out of those before now.

Below is detailed info from their website on seating policy together with charges:-

www.britishairways.com/travel/mmbseatingpolicy/public/en_gb