Bits: Lloyds response to our fraud claims, BA changing the policy on children in lounges?

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• Challenger says:

  18 Nov18 November 07:42

  Under 12s need to be banned from BA lounges, particularly Galleries First and Concorde Room.
  We have had bad experiences and complained to BA staff who did nothing.

• Tim Millea says:

  18 Nov18 November 07:45

  If status members want to take their children in to the lounge, the children should either have status themselves or be travelling on premium tickets – simples! Having children is a choice and there should be no automatic entitlement to negatively affect the quality of life of others in the lounge because of that choice. If such entitlement is granted then it should be non-ageist and extended to other family members. Why should someone be allowed to take, e.g. their 10 children, but I not be allowed to take my mother?

  • J says:

    18 Nov18 November 10:22

    Suddenly every family has 3, 4, 5,… 10 children. The simple reason is that you can go to the lounge whilst your mum hangs out at the shops whereas I’d be arrested if I left my daughter alone whilst popping in to the lounge.

    • Fenny says:

      18 Nov18 November 11:49

      Parental units require as much, if not more support than offspring. But I’d happily leave my mother in a coffee shop and sit in the lounge to get some peace & quiet. I don’t think the coffee shop residents would be impressed!

• Nick says:

  18 Nov18 November 07:49

  The last time I was in T5B lounge I left because of the obnoxious off-duty pilots sitting near me and being as loud as possible.

  Then there was the time (not BA) where a guy started watching a film on his phone… without headphones… and the staff did nothing to ask him to be quiet.

  I don’t think I’d have a problem with older children as they might just sit playing on their phones and not doing much else. It’s the younger ones (4-13 say) who are most likely to run around or ‘need entertaining’ (which usually means something loud). But I don’t mind them trying it, as long as they reconsider if it doesn’t go well.

  As for onboard, absolutely give me a cabin of infants ahead of DYKWIAs any day.

  • Rob says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:33

    Do you have kids?! No kid over about the age of 4 needs ‘entertaining’ by a 3rd party. We send our 9 year old down to Tesco to do our shopping, she is well past the age of ‘needing to be entertained’ – there is a cut off of around 4 when they are fine by themselves if given an iPad, phone, comic etc.

    • Lesley says:

      18 Nov18 November 10:27

      They may not need entertaining but they do often need refereeing.

• Lesley says:

  18 Nov18 November 07:58

  Not a good idea. To all those who say they have had worse experiences with adults than children that is because there are virtually no children in lounges at the present so that is probably true. I speak as mother to four kids (now grown up) and I know who was the most boisterous and noisy when they were little and it wasn’t me and my husband, not because they were bad kids but they were just kids.
  The only way it would work is if there was an entirely separate family lounge which isn’t going to be feasible in most cases.

• Paul says:

  18 Nov18 November 07:59

  BA is anti family.

  It stems from their internal and historical ban on the kids of staff in F under the age of 12. This applies to even the Chairman and CEO. They are, I understand one of very few, if any airlines who do this. Consequently staff view children generally as a problem and this permeates every aspect of the airlines offer to families.
  Like others I don’t suffer from a lack of lounge access as my kids all have silver cards but I hate the fact that BA won’t allow my family to align membership years to a single date. I only need this once. When travel plans over a year change it can become awkward and in the past my wife and I have been guests of my under 8 kids in T5 lounges.
  BA need to go much much further with how they treat kids and how they treat status holders. They could start by banning guest access to every card holder and offer us all 10 or 20 guest passes per year based on status and to the lounge they are entitled too. At one stage, and even now, there is a Flyertalk and BA97.com page dedicated to matching up status holders with those who want lounge access.
  I have a household with 1 gold and 3 silver and I resent not getting access to the flounge when travelling with my wife and kids so this is an area BA need to look at.
  For the record in over 30 years of premium travel my worst flight experiences have involved fist fights in club world, snoring in First class and passengers body odour. None of these involved kids only so called grown up

  ,

• Bach says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:14

  OT – Are there any options to redeem air baltic flights (London – Riga) other than with air baltic PINS? I have avios and MR points.

  • Darren says:

    18 Nov18 November 11:01

    I don’t have an answer to your question I’m afraid and I think it may be lost in the noise of this thread. You may want to try again tomorrow on a quieter bits piece.

    (*returns to reading the comments and vows never to get involved)

• Chrish says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:23

  This will not go down well, but the best solution for all would be:
  If there are two lounges one lounge parents and children, babies only,
  second lounge adults Only.
  If only one lounge a separate Area for children parents, if full no admittance
  Hmmm This could also be adopted to Flights, middle of Aircraft parents and children, babies only
  regardless of status. (sorry Rob)

• John says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:33

  Rob, if she’d waited, Anika could have been Sleepless in…

  https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2017/1117/920785-new-aer-lingus-route/

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