Best Club Suite with 2-year old

[vetjames]

What seat in a 777 or 787 Club Suite would you choose with a 2-year-old? We currently have 1A and 2A. We are travelling LHR to CPT. I wonder if something further back in the cabin would be better as it is quieter?

Thoughts?

[Robm]

We did LHR to YVR and back in CS recently with our 7 month old and just turned 4 year old. As CS is 1-2-1 it can make it quite awkward – I was sat next to our 4 year old in the middle by the second bulkhead in a 777, row 10. It meant I could see him and hold his hand if needed (only just about through the partition). My wife was sat across the aisle from our 4 year old with our baby on the bassinet. It was only if both mummy and 4 year old lent all the way forward that they could see each other. Hope that helps!

[Richie]

Is the CS seat belt able to secure a small 2 year old?

[Gary]

If child is shorter than height of the door, only the waist seatbelt would be required (not the shoulder to waist one).

[Robm]

Our just turned 4 year old only needed the lap belt and he was okay – he is very skinny.

[Rob]

If this is just you and the kid in 1A/2A then you’re making a huge mistake. You can’t see into 1A from 2A (or from any seat into the one infront) and in case of turbulence you will be strapped into your own seat unable to see or comfort your child. Take a middle pair.

[jj]

“Mummy, I’m frightened!”…”Sorry, darling, I can’t get to you right now. Sit still and be brave!”…”Wah, wah, wah!”

That’s an approximate transcript from the far end of the cabin a recent journey on CS during take-off and landing. Turbulence would have been the same if we’d had any.

Despite being universally loved by travel journalists, CS was not designed with small humans in mind. It would be kinder to your tot to book a different airline or, if it must BA, travel in Premium Economy where they can be near you. Sorry if that’s not what you want to hear, but BA has gone all-in on the sole-traveller business market with its recent premium seat designs.

[The Savage Squirrel]

I have to agree with jj here. Just because a product is more expensive does not mean it is better in all scenarios or for all users. 2 is very young.

Middle pair is best, but bear in mind that even here you can (only just through a partition) touch them, but to do anything meaningful you need to get up, walk all the way to the end of the aisle, across – maybe through the galley, then all the way back down the other aisle, so this still has significant compromises.

Are you confident that your 2YO will not become scared then attempt to get up and leave her seat during takeoff and landing? Would she be able to manage turbulence (possibly prolonged) with you being able to talk to her but barely touch her. If the answer to this is no then Club Suite is not the best product for your needs and PE is better.

[Robm]

Yeah, CS can be a pain for young families. If we’d had a just turned 2 year old we’d have likely sacked it off for PE or something else. We were lucky our 4yo was very occupied by the screen and slept really well as well. As OP was saying flight is to South Africa, PE could work well as a day flight.

[The Lord]

What exactly are the rules on booking an under 2 year old their own seat? Can they just sit in it with a lapband or must they be in a car seat?

[Richie]

It seems CS middle seating needs a slight modification in design to make it more parent and child friendly.

[weeble]

Change the flight to LGW and then you’ll get Club World and can choose the centre seats.

[NorthernLass]

The Lord wrote:

What exactly are the rules on booking an under 2 year old their own seat? Can they just sit in it with a lapband or must they be in a car seat?

I don’t think you can book a separate seat for a child under 2 on BA. It used to be possible on easyJet but I don’t know if this is still the case. When our son was a baby and flights to Europe were £60 return including bags we booked him a seat on our flight to Sardinia and put him in his car seat.

[aq.1988]

Hi all,

I have a similar question, my wife and I, plus 3 year old daughter are booked on a 777, which I believe is Club Suite as the seats on MMB are in a 1-2-1 layout A-EF-K.

My wife and daughter on 1 booking, and I’m separate, as we both used a BC voucher to upgrade 1 way.

We’re both lowly bronze, so we can’t select our seats for free yet. I feel reluctant to spend around £200 just to select seats now.

I know CS isn’t very child friendly, but my daughter is a very good flyer, even in turbulence. We had horrible turbulence flying into DBV last year, and had a go around, and she was completely fine (whereas me and my wife were praying for dear life!).

Wondering, when we are able to select seats, which would you suggest are the best options (if available)? I don’t think its a very popular route, so would expect there to be decent choices available 7 days out.

Because of the divide, is a middle pair for them a good idea? Just in case I can’t get A or K on the same row?

Or would we be better off doing F and K, and I try to get then choose K, 1 row ahead? Or similarly, A and E, and A. Or should we try for 3 consecutive window seats, which might be harder to get?

We have done that on Virgin UC, which was much easier as we could select the seats at the time of booking.

Thanks

[The Savage Squirrel]

aq.1988 wrote:

Hi all,

I have a similar question, my wife and I, plus 3 year old daughter are booked on a 777, which I believe is Club Suite as the seats on MMB are in a 1-2-1 layout A-EF-K.

My wife and daughter on 1 booking, and I’m separate, as we both used a BC voucher to upgrade 1 way.

We’re both lowly bronze, so we can’t select our seats for free yet. I feel reluctant to spend around £200 just to select seats now.

I know CS isn’t very child friendly, but my daughter is a very good flyer, even in turbulence. We had horrible turbulence flying into DBV last year, and had a go around, and she was completely fine (whereas me and my wife were praying for dear life!).

Wondering, when we are able to select seats, which would you suggest are the best options (if available)? I don’t think its a very popular route, so would expect there to be decent choices available 7 days out.

Because of the divide, is a middle pair for them a good idea? Just in case I can’t get A or K on the same row?

Or would we be better off doing F and K, and I try to get then choose K, 1 row ahead? Or similarly, A and E, and A. Or should we try for 3 consecutive window seats, which might be harder to get?

We have done that on Virgin UC, which was much easier as we could select the seats at the time of booking.

Thanks

BA’s booking algorithm is going to give your daughter and wife adjacent seats anyway even if you do nothing until turning up at the airport, as this is required.

Middle pair for daughter+wife is probably best (and almost certainly what BA will do anyway) with you on the same side of the plan as your daughter as close as you can get to get up and offer assistance – although as you can’t see her from any other seat then if it’s a few rows forward or back from her location it really doesn’t make much difference. That way she’ll be able to see your wife and you will be able to offer assistance without someone walking the full length of the cabin and back.

As most Club Suite seats are basically identical, people are often pretty indifferent about where they sit, so it’s quite possible you can swap with people in the cabin if your end result location is not perfect anyway – particularly with someone who might worry that your child might be noisy when you are offering to move closer with them moving further away….

I’d be saving yourself the seat selection fees here. I also definitely wouldn’t do 3 window seats in a row as your daughter may as well be on her own in that case.

[aq.1988]

Thanks so much for your detailed reply, it’s very useful.

Will try for a middle pair, with me on a window seat, the same side my daughter is on.

[John]

On family long haul trips it’s economy for us now (3yo) simply because you can move the handrests and he gets a “flat bed”. PE wouldn’t work.

Take a day afterwards to recover. At least we aren’t constrained by school holidays yet so we can do direct flights when they are cheap(ish). Any sort of ex-EU thing would just prolong the pain. At least we still have BA Bronze which will be gone soon.

Avios balance is building up as nothing to use them on.

[R]

Is the consensus then that with one toddler A-EF is manageable even though the divider does a bit too much dividing?

[aq.1988]

I have recently flown CS with my wife and 3 year old, and now debating whether its worth flying in the old 2-3-2 for our next long haul trip.

Before take-off, we were originally sat with my wife and daughter in row 16 middle pair, with myself in the seat behind my daughter. However, we realised that my wife had no access to my daughter, but luckily a window seat was available at 17K, so we ended up all on the same side, but still wasn’t easy being able to see our daughter, and help her when she needed it. She even climbed out her seat belt just before take-off!

Now, for next year, looking at Dubai, and the overnight options. One of the options has CS, but the other is on a 787 with the old 2-3-2 layout.

As there’s 3 of us, is it a simple case of picking the 3 middle seats, or are we better off going for a window pair, with one parent in the aisle on the same row? Main concern is at least one of us having easy access/visibility of our daughter.

[n1368585]

aq.1988 wrote:

I have recently flown CS with my wife and 3 year old, and now debating whether its worth flying in the old 2-3-2 for our next long haul trip.

Before take-off, we were originally sat with my wife and daughter in row 16 middle pair, with myself in the seat behind my daughter. However, we realised that my wife had no access to my daughter, but luckily a window seat was available at 17K, so we ended up all on the same side, but still wasn’t easy being able to see our daughter, and help her when she needed it. She even climbed out her seat belt just before take-off!

Now, for next year, looking at Dubai, and the overnight options. One of the options has CS, but the other is on a 787 with the old 2-3-2 layout.

As there’s 3 of us, is it a simple case of picking the 3 middle seats, or are we better off going for a window pair, with one parent in the aisle on the same row? Main concern is at least one of us having easy access/visibility of our daughter.

We’re actually flying back from Delhi on a 787-8 in CW with our 6yr old and infant in Nov. Luckily for us, this is still fitted with the old style club world layout as we’ve gone with the 3 seats in middle (eldest daughter in between me and wife facing us).

Hopefully there’s no aircraft changes last minute as I’d dread doing that journey in Club Suite with kids.

[The Savage Squirrel]

@aq.1988 Aircraft swaps happen. Sometimes last minute. Safety videos on planes may be a joke, but actual safety is quite important. If your daughter is not staying strapped in her seat during takeoff (or potentially through prolonged turbulence next time?) then she’s not ready for this.

As I said upthread, just because a product is more expensive does not mean it is better in all scenarios or for all users. Very young children will be much happier in Premium Economy next to their parents. Yeah that’s less comfortable so sucks for us (well, some of you, my kids are past that stage now :p) but being a parent involves putting childrens’ wellbeing ahead of our own. If I’m saying this (and I’m a very strong supporter of babies and kids being in Biz class in general)….

[aq.1988]

The Savage Squirrel wrote:

@aq.1988 Aircraft swaps happen. Sometimes last minute. Safety videos on planes may be a joke, but actual safety is quite important. If your daughter is not staying strapped in her seat during takeoff (or potentially through prolonged turbulence next time?) then she’s not ready for this.

As I said upthread, just because a product is more expensive does not mean it is better in all scenarios or for all users. Very young children will be much happier in Premium Economy next to their parents. Yeah that’s less comfortable so sucks for us (well, some of you, my kids are past that stage now :p) but being a parent involves putting childrens’ wellbeing ahead of our own. If I’m saying this (and I’m a very strong supporter of babies and kids being in Biz class in general)….

That’s actually a very fair point. There’s usually only 2 seats released in PE, so might either have to pay cash for 1 PE seat, or ‘take one for the team’, and fly in J on my own 😉

[John]

With my son we did business when he was 5 months, then it was covid. We booked a CW return for when he was 1.99 to 2.01 to take advantage of the BA infant thing, but that didn’t happen.

His second long haul flight he was 3 and we figured that economy works better because we take a row of 3. My wife and I get 1.5 seats while he gets to lay flat. Premium doesn’t work because the armrests don’t move.

I suspect there will be no J for a while except perhaps on short haul. Managed to get some good avios redemptions in Y (not involving the UK) at 1 to 2p per avios based on what I would actually pay.

[SamG]

My last couple of CS flights I’ve seen families pretty stressed out by young kids and the config including one kid running down the aisle just prior to take off and we had to wait whilst they were moved to economy for departure.

I certainly will be doing Y if we do any BA long haul in the next few years at all. Personally I can’t imagine myself paying WT+ x 4 , it’d have to be once they’re much older and a compelling mark up vs Y . Avios upgrade from Y back from US is one scenario but then finding 4 x WT+ seats isn’t easy