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| British Airways... not bad but cabin crew have no idea about regulations |
| Posted by salome2001 on 12 Jan 2010 |
We flew with BA out of London City Airport (so Cityflyer, so be exact) just before Christmas 2009 to Europe (short haul) with our 19 month old. Although he is entitled to fly on our laps for a nonimal fee, we elected to buy him a seat for our own sanity (full fare as we had "very cheap fares"- only the fully flexible fare has a child discount).
We were allowed to take the pushchair to the gate (Quinny Zapp) which was appreciated. We took our own car seat onboard and settled DS into it. As soon as we were seated, the flight attendant challenged the fact that our son was sitting in his own seat on a full flight (that's because we PAID for it!) and then insisted that he had to come out of the seat and sit on my lap for take-off and landing (the most risky parts of the flight- go figure)
On our return, we were first challenged about using the car seat at all (we pointed out that BA mandated the use of one if an under-2 occupied a seat), was then told that we couldn't have it in the middle of the row of three (where it had been on the outbound flight) and that it had to be at the window. The flight attendant then said that the captain had said that if a single adult is travelling with two children, they could sit in the window and aisle seats with the adult in between, so he could sit in the aisle, but I had to sit on the other side on my own!
And nothing at all said about having him on my lap for take-off and landing!!
I will give them credit for being very apologetic about it all, but some consistency would have been appreciated!
By the way- we were given an activity pack (pencils and colouring book) on the return flight only, and neither had toddler-appropriate snacks. We also had to ask specifically for a juice for my son when the drinks came around as none was offered- remember, his seat was paid for at adult prices! |
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| Easyjet to and from Malaga |
| Posted by katy on 01 Nov 2008 |
| I took my eight week old daughter to and from Malaga and Easyjet was actually very good. I breast fed so I don't know if they would havce warmed a bottle, but we took the pushchair right up to the plane, had a seatbelt of sorts and the air hostesses were very very helpful for the entire flight (there were loads of babies & children on board) |
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| flying again! this time with qatar |
| Posted by Katharine Rosenstiel on 26 Jun 2008 |
| was impressed when flying with qatar to hong kong via doha that i was given the bulkhead seat (window) and spare seat despite fact that daughter is now at 20 months far too big for basinet, was impressed with qatar they had soft toy planes for under twos as well as stuff for children, one older sibling was more interested in the baby toy! flying home was bit of nightmare as flight was full from hong kong and my lil girl was only infant on flight people werent too happy with her crying... flight from doha to london was half empty so asked instead of going on bulkhead to be seated further back as armrests to not lift up on the bulkhead, slight mistake was made when got seated in exit row but it made it easier for little one who fell asleep before plane had taken off, qatar is one of best airlines have flown with and would more than happily fly with them again, they were able to provide juice and baby food and also gave me a pack with nappies, wipes and talcum powder! also doha airport had good play area with soft play made good use of that on way out with a 5 hour stopover, would recommend them to anyone flying to middle east/far east with a baby! |
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| First Choice (May 2008) |
| Posted by Hilary Roch on 21 May 2008 |
This was the first time that I had flown with a baby who was 8 months. We flew to Menorca.
Lets just say I have had more pleasant experiences! On checking in I asked if the flight was full and yes it was, so no chance of having a spare seat next to us! So, I asked if we could possibly have the bulk head seat of which I was told that our seats were preallocated already and could not be changed.
When we boarded it was a total free for all. No priority boarding for children. In the end we just waited until everybody had boarded.
The aircraft had three seats and then another three seats across. We saw an enormous woman sat in the aisle seat and just knew that it was where we were to sit!!! I got in the window seat with baby on knee and 6ft 6 husband squashed himself into the middle seat.
There was no room whatsoever! Hand luggage was in front of my feet and every time I needed something out for baby it just couldn't be done. Poor baby was literally face to face with the back of the person seat in front. The amount of room really was disgusting for a person without a baby, never mind having a baby on your knee.
In the end, my husband stood most of the way, so that I could have some room with baby.
I was advised to bottle feed baby upon descent to help with ears. I asked air hostess to warm up bottle in preparation and she was really snotty. In the end another air hostess came over and said that it wasn't a problem and she would do it for us.
All in all I am glad the flight was only 2 hours 15 minutes.
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| holidays |
| Posted by Katharine Rosenstiel on 20 Mar 2008 |
| took my daughter who was then 15 months to hawaii for new year flying with virgin atlantic, as far as my daughters been concerned they've always been wonderful so sorry to hear aussiebattler of your terrible experience. good flight out only spare seat in economy was next to me and cabin crew didnt have a problem with lil 1 having it as apparantly was too big for basinnet. she slept most of flight for which was greatful and they had great choice of kids movies for when she was awake! both delta who i flew from los angeles to hawaii with and hawaiian airlines who i flew back to la with were back but neither airline provided infant seatbelts which put me off wanting to fly with either again. on the way back hawaiian insisted they couldnt check the pushchair all the way through to london which ended up being a godsend, was amazed when checking in in la an hour before the connecting flight to be offered a bulkhead seat thought that meant flight was emptyish because we all know that bulkhead seats go pretty quickly.. but was far from wrong as flight turned out to be completely full every bulkhead had two bassinets attached, was puzzled to discover that on the same type of aircraft that on the return flight my lil girl was now small and light enough for a bassinet, here i'd definately if at all possible recommend flying on a A340-600 as their bassinets are like baby bouncers that attach to the wall and are a lot roomier and comfortable than the bassinets available on the boeings, i didnt personally have a problem but there were a few families split up which wasnt impressed as they'd all been assured they'd be seated together but the flight was packed every seat was taken. my only problem with virgin was when i got back to heathrow to find only one suitcase had arrived compared to the two i'd left hawaii with the previous day! i got it back after 4 days thankfully but wasnt offered any compensation as i was on an inbound flight and going home... |
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| Avoid Virgin Atlantic |
| Posted by aussiebattler on 31 Jan 2008 |
We (including our six month old) flew Premium Economy with Virgin Atlantic and had a horrendous time (it cost us over £3K for the inconvenience of flying with them).
After requesting a sky-cot on several occasions before the flight and being assured one was reserved by Virgin Atlantic's customer services we turned up at the airport and were told that no sky-cot was available and that we also had to sit separately. We complained to the Supervisor on duty who, after fifteen minutes, came back and said that we still couldn't sit together but we would have a sky-cot. We enquired about the leg from Hong Kong to Sydney and were promised that we would be sitting together and we would also have a sky-cot.
Before we boarded the Virgin Atlantic flight I checked one last time with one of the stewardesses as to whether we had a sky-cot and was assured we did. We boarded and discovered that we were not sitting together and we did not have a sky-cot. The same applied for the Hong Kong to Sydney leg. In fact, the person who was sitting in the seat reserved for a sky-cot on this leg was a single, able-bodied young man who happily swapped seats once asked. So despite Virgin Atlantic knowing that an infant was flying they didn't set this seat aside and instead gave it away to somebody who only wanted a bit of extra leg-room.
Worst was still to come. We landed in Sydney and our luggage never turned up. After speaking to the Virgin Atlantic representative she advised our luggage was still in London and would be delivered to us in four days time. They said they would give us A$200 (about £80) in compensation to allow us to buy emergency items. We asked how they possibly expected us to buy essentials for our six month old, little alone ourselves, to last four days on A$200. Their response was one of surprise "you mean you didn't pack a change of clothes for yourselves in your hand luggage?"
We got back to London and complained about the blatant lies and the stress caused to Virgin Atlantic. Their response was to say that as we were travelling with an infant we should not expect the same convenience as somebody who was travelling without. In other words, they discriminate against those with infants. Oh and they also said that even if you book a sky-cot it isn't guaranteed - strangely enough there is no mention of this clause on their website or when you phone them to buy your ticket in the first place, only when you encounter a problem.
I have since heard of others suffering a similar fate.
Another word of warning, whilst Virgin Atlantic does provide a sky-cot it is quite small (our child at six months barely fitted in). We have since flown BA who were superb. We could book our seats online the day before (you can't on Virgin Atlantic) and they offered several different cots for the baby including a car seat type which reclined. When it comes to infants, Virgin Atlantic is a budget airline! |
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| the first time i flew with infant |
| Posted by yasmine041 on 30 Oct 2007 |
| we flew with thompson and they were quite good my daughter was 6 months old at the time but we only ent on a 3 hr flight. it is stressfull though as you are so close to people and with a crying baby can get embarrsing but the staff were helpful and catered for us great |
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| Our first flight with Max Jet - Stansted to New York |
| Posted by kaz459 on 30 Oct 2007 |
We flew to New York with our then 9 month old son and chose Max jet as it was an all business class flight at a reasonable price important when you have to have your baby on your lap.
Outbound there was a 4 hr delay due to a technical problem but the lounge was ok and we were able to feed Ben and get him ready for bed. The service and seat was good and we were impressed, that was until our return journey........
We were about to take off when the Captain said there was a technical problem so we then taxied to an area for the engineers to try to sort it out. We sat there for 2.5 hrs before the Capt said the flight had to be cancelled. My husband went off with the rush to secure another flight while i waited in baggage for our cases, car seat and buggy. The buggy and carseat were lost and took an hour to locate. In the meantime my husband was victorious in being told he had been transferred to a Virgin flight - Upper Class that morning (it was now the early hours) We got a shuttle to the hotel which took 45 mins and spent 2 hours in the room before we had to get back to check in again. Ben had been asleep then woken up quite a few times and at 4.45am decided to have a major tantrum, poor thing entirely understandable. We checked in at Virgin Upper Class to find that there were no Upper class seats, we had been misled by max jet. We therefore had to sit in economy which was no fun with a baby on your lap (something we chose maxjet for to make our journey more comfortable) At Heathrow maxjet provided a taxi to get us back to Stansted which pleasantly surprised us after the poor customer service we had received in New York. We finally arrived home at 11.45 pm after a 23hr journey.
Max jet offered us a free return flight each but we had had such a terrible experience that we decided not to fly again. We asked Max Jet for a refund of our return flight instead of a further free flight and they offered us £125 each. We felt this was not adequate as our ticket had cost £325 with £90 for Ben to sit on a lap. We then told them of our experiences and being misled into thinking we would be returning the same class seat but this was not acknowledged and the £125 was still offered. We spoke with a lot of passengers who had used maxjet and there were stories of alleged frequent technical problems due to the planes being old and also that they only have 4 planes so no quick back up if one breaks down. From what I saw of Virgin they are very baby friendly even having baby food etc.
Can you believe turning down a free flight due to your previous experiences neither can we!! |
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| update on easyjet |
| Posted by Katharine Rosenstiel on 16 Sep 2007 |
travelling with easyjet was a nightmare as far as the pushchair was concerned, got 2 take it all the way 2 the gates which was great, went a bit overboard in dutyfree so when got to majorca had to carry 3 carrier bags, changing bag and my daughter who just wanted to walk because you cant get your pushchair back until baggage reclaim, as was travelling alone was a nightmare everyone else with a child at least had someone else 2 carry the bags!
one good thing i did experience with easyjet was that on the way home (and here i was brave when changing my flight to give extra day in majorca i opted for a day flight) they carried my travelcot separately free of charge as there was no way on earth it would fit in my suitcase, apparently travel cots come under sports equipment and they carry that for free, im not complaining! again though getting my daughter and bags to baggage reclaim was a nightmare as she wanted to walk but hasnt quite worked out yet that you have to keep walking in the same direction! another annoyance was that buggies dont come with the rest of the luggage they get dropped off on the opposite side (depending on your luggage carousel location) and obviously it is not safe just 2 leave your luggage! this has put me off flying easy jet again big time, if ya travel with a wheelchair ya get it back so why not a pushchair! apparently airberlin have same system and as one experience is enough i dont think i'll be trying them! |
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| travelling alone with an infant |
| Posted by Katharine Rosenstiel on 06 Sep 2007 |
i took my daughter to new york flying with virgin when she was 6 3/4 months old, virgin were great i got 2 skip the queue at check-in, got a bulkhead seat no problem and a skycot and was allowed to take my buggy right up to the gate, the flight there wasnt great mainly cos my daughter was awake the whole time apart from takeoff and landing when they helpfully provided an infant belt, luckily my fellow passengers had no complaints and 1 passenger even entertained her 4 me!
on the way back i ran into problems at security when they took all the water i'd prepared for bottles off me after insisting that i needed it and believe me explaining that you need cooled down boiled water for an infant is not easy! they negotiated with virgin who happily took care of everything! the trip back was a lot easier as my daughter slept in the sky cot the whole way back, i would definately recommend flying at night with an infant! another thing i found good with virgin was despite landing at heathrow was that all passengers flying with pushchairs got them back as soon as we landed, they carried mine on the plane so i knew i'd be ok but some airlines insist heathrow is 2 busy to give them back until you reach the terminal...
my 2nd trip with my daughter came when she was 8 3/4 months old and we flew to poland with ryanair, after hearing bad things about flying on low cost airlines with infants i was pleasantly suprised after being given priority booking and being able to take my buggy all the way to the plane. again i was given an infant seat belt and luckily had a good flight, my daughter could crawl by then was slightly worried about lack of moving around! could have done with a bit more help getting up the plane steps tho, was raining and slippery steps arent easy 2 negoiate with an infant and bags
on the way back again priority boarding, buggy all the way to the plane, my daughter slept the whole way back again we were travelling at night! and pushchairs were handing over as soon as we landed, i bumped into people in security who were carrying infants as apparently easyjet doesnt give pushchairs back until baggage reclaim.
heading to majorca on sat with easyjet my daughter'll be 11 1/2 months old, shes walking now so it'll be interesting to see how it goes! i'm hoping easyjet will be nice (see earliar comment) as i'm travelling by myself, both flights are at night so hopefully it'll go smoothly!
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