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Hi,
Am looking at travelling to Europe this summer with my wife and 18 month old baby. As she is under 2 my daughter can go on our laps but I imagine this will not be very pleasant for 2/3 hours as she is quite wriggly!
I know that usually BA business shorthaul is just a ‘normal’ plane with the middle seat blocked off. Has anyone had any experience in putting children in the middle seat either informally or in their carseat?
Thanks
TC
You might not get away with putting a car seat in the middle (definitely not for take off and landing), but you may well be able to use the middle seat, especially if there’s no tray, as on some flights these days. If there is a tray, crew may or may not be happy about you removing it it. Toddler could probably sit on tray, though, if you held on to her.
I sympathise as I do recall how exhausting it is trying to hold on to a wriggly infant!
I just did a return flight out of Gatwick and on both flights the crew wouldn’t/couldn’t adjust the middle table away . I believe there are some guides on flyertalk but they didn’t seem like they’d have been too happy about me doing it myself!
There are a lot of rules about car seats and I’ve never actually seen one on board, neither of mine would have sat in it that long and then what would you do with it is what I always thought.
Personally I’d price up 3 seats and CE and be willing to pay a modest premium for CE if I did not have status but be prepared for the table to remain a table… though the NEOS out of Heathrow don’t have one
To be honest, I think you’re far better off booking 3 seats in economy. Cheaper & with a toddler in a proper seat between you’re likely to be more comfortable.
It was certainly possible to purchase a seat for an infant and put them in the car seat, with the seat belt around it (after take off), when my son was a baby. We flew some crazily cheap easyJet routes (like Sardinia for £40 pp return), which made it a no-brainer to get him a separate seat. Now they all seem to want twice that just to have the baby on your lap!
Personally I would also buy 3 seats in economy, which is what we did when my son was young. From the moment he could crawl it was a nightmare. He could never sit still for 5 minutes let alone 2 or 3 hours no matter what distractions we had for him.
I’ve done CE a few times as two parents and an infant. I think it works quite well. Generally no issue removing the tray (if it’s a CEO airframe) but my experience is that cabin crew aren’t trained on it so no guarantee that they will. You could book three across in economy but it’s not necessarily that much cheaper and you’re of course missing out on all the benefits of CE.
I travel frequently in CE with a partner and removing the middle seat tray never been an issue (we just don’t like having the tray between us). I have seen people with very young children in CE and the child usually spends most of the time in the middle seat. Not sure how it works when the seat belt sign is on. From the tray perspective, there is no issue moving it but as others suggest, best to buy three ET tickets. Same comfort, less stress.
Not quite toddler, but did a couple with my daughter when she was 9 months.
She was very happy to sit on the table on the middle seat, and seemed very comfortable (some would say too comfortable in CE…). She loved having a try of our afternoon tea, and fundamentally the benefits of CE (in particular luggage, lounge) were great for travelling with an infant. We also have a foldable buggy which we able to take onboard into the overhead – which made being on the ground much easier (unlikely to be told you have to put hand luggage in the hold etc.)
It really wasn’t very different in price terms of the three economy tickets either.
Never heard of a problem removing the tray. Otherwise just sit on the tray.
Removing the tray is fine, but likely involves you getting down to find where the buttons to unlock the tray are (I don’t fly often enough to memorize the exact way)
I’ve always done it myself and didn’t ask the crew – never heard a word from the crew (the only comment I ever had was from another passenger, which I ignored).A quick Google search will give the answer. But cabin crew should know how to do this. The tray is purely functional and serves no other purpose, so there is no issue removing it. But serendipitously also a perfect height for a toddler that can sit up to access the tray table.
Re: “The tray is purely functional and serves no other purpose”
I’m trying to think what type of purposes a tray could have other than functional, e.g. decorative? “At BA we do like to set a tray over a seat to satisfy the Feng Shui principles…”
I assume that was a reference to it having no safety related purpose.
I assume that was a reference to it having no safety related purpose.
Exactly. But actually I quite like the Feng Shui it creates as it “connects” my wife and I and we have a shared space to explore each other’s, ahem, food and drink. The important thing is that the removed tray is stored safely.
Well, I was on a flight last year where they hadn’t removed the middle tray from a row which subsequently became ET. Pax couldn’t remove it, so a crew member came along, unhinged it and threw it under the seat!
Not sure about safety or hygiene there 🤦🏻♀️
I assume that was a reference to it having no safety related purpose.
Exactly. But actually I quite like the Feng Shui it creates as it “connects” my wife and I and we have a shared space to explore each other’s, ahem, food and drink. The important thing is that the removed tray is stored safely.
Tray just goes under the seat, it rotates on some hinges. It is not actually taken off, no need to store it.
I’m going to try it out on Thursday 😁 I love finding funny quirks of airline design that make complete sense once you know why they are there.
I’ve always booked CE when our daughter was <2 hear old
1. Better experience at security
2. More comfortable to swap a nappy in the lounge than in an airport
3. My kid quite enjoyed the kids corner / croissants in the lounge
4. Free overhead locker for the stroller and generally we had at least 4 items of carry on (stroller, baby food, change + toys and electronics)Never had an issue removing the table
Also this is a great use of the Barclays voucher. It will upgrade both the adult and infant tickets
The tray table does indeed fold under the seat as Rui N says. There are catches either side just above the seat that are easy to locate by touch. I assume the same catches are used to unlock it under the seat, but didn’t have time to check as champagne was arriving 😁
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