British Airways Seating ?

[Wills Mom]

Hi all! I hope my fellow Disers had a great Christmas. I'm hoping someone here can give me some advise for our August trip.
So we booked our flights through a travel agent as we got a great deal and it was a deposit only fare so win/win! The agent contacted me yesterday to give me our BA reference numbers (we are travelling with SIL and her DS but they are returning earlier than us so are on a separate booking) so I logged into the BA site last night to see what seat requests were available for our flights.
I put in the request for my family with no problem and then tried to do the same for SIL but the option to request seats wasn't showing so I rang BA and the person said that she needed to talk to the named passenger but it shouldn't be a problem. I got SIL to ring BA but when she spoke to someone she was told she wouldn't be able to request seats til OLCI?! Which BA rep was right does anyone know?

 

[2Tiggies]

Unless it's changed since the summer, you pay to select your seats up until online check in opens. If you have a Frequent Flyer membership with them, you can put in your seat type preference, but that's as good as it gets for free.

 

[Wills Mom]

Thanks Maybe it just let me request our seats cause DS2 will be a lap passenger!
Actually, that reminds me of another question I have. As I said DS2 will be a lap infant (he'll be almost 19 months old) and I'm wondering now if he's as much of a squirmer then as he is now might it be possible on the day if the flight hasn't sold out to buy a seat for him? And if that IS possible would it generally be at a reduced rate or would I be better off looking into buying a seat now? The lady I was speaking to on BA last night did put through a request for a bassinette but he's already in 12-18 months clothes and filling them so he most certainly won't get use of it if we did happen to get it. The extra leg room would be nice though. We had no issues with DS1 at 14 months on his first trip but DS2 is not quite as "tame" as DS1.

 

[tinks86]

Thanks Maybe it just let me request our seats cause DS2 will be a lap passenger! Actually, that reminds me of another question I have. As I said DS2 will be a lap infant (he'll be almost 19 months old) and I'm wondering now if he's as much of a squirmer then as he is now might it be possible on the day if the flight hasn't sold out to buy a seat for him? And if that IS possible would it generally be at a reduced rate or would I be better off looking into buying a seat now? The lady I was speaking to on BA last night did put through a request for a bassinette but he's already in 12-18 months clothes and filling them so he most certainly won't get use of it if we did happen to get it. The extra leg room would be nice though. We had no issues with DS1 at 14 months on his first trip but DS2 is not quite as "tame" as DS1.

I don't know if there is an equivalent thing with BA but with virgin I've been able to book seat plus for our 18 month old DS. It cost £65 each way and we've had an extra seat each way!

 

[lush]

The reason you were able to pick your seats is because you have an infant on the booking. We have been able to pick ours all out much to the dismay of my in-laws who are on a separate booking so cannot pick theirs until OLCI!

Can't really comment on the ability to buy an extra seat at check-in. My DD2 will be 22 months when we travel but she can sit quite well (when she wants to!) and I've managed to get the seats at the front of the section on the right hand side so we should be able to spread ourselves out a bit without getting in anyone's way. I'm hoping that this combination will work out ok for us.

 

[Wills Mom]

Thanks guys I've had a look at the outbound flight and have changed our seats so myself and DS2 are in a bassinette seat (row 15 so right up the front of economy) with DS1 in the seat beside me. Then I have DH in the middle (of 3) seat behind DS1 so hopefully the seats on either side of him won't be allocated to another party and when I do OLCI for SIL I can put her and her DS in the seats either side of DH. Good idea or bad idea?

Tinks86 thats EXACTLY what I'm thinking of. We usually fly VA so am completely clueless with regard to BA! I must research a bit more!

 

[lush]

I don't think BA offer anything like those seats, I couldn't find anything like them on their website. We very nearly booked VA just because of those seats but then we got a much better deal with BA. Definitely worth asking them at check in though, you never know!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thanks guys I've had a look at the outbound flight and have changed our seats so myself and DS2 are in a bassinette seat (row 15 so right up the front of economy) with DS1 in the seat beside me. Then I have DH in the middle (of 3) seat behind DS1 so hopefully the seats on either side of him won't be allocated to another party and when I do OLCI for SIL I can put her and her DS in the seats either side of DH. Good idea or bad idea?

........

Bad idea! Get your husband out of that middle seat asap! That is the least desirable seat; there is an excellent chance someone else will take the aisle or middle seat before you do.

How will an 18 month old fit in a bassinet?

If I were you, I take the aisle seat in the bulkhead row with the lap baby and give your husband and older son the aisle and middle seat in the row behind.

 

[Wills Mom]

I don't think BA offer anything like those seats, I couldn't find anything like them on their website. We very nearly booked VA just because of those seats but then we got a much better deal with BA. Definitely worth asking them at check in though, you never know!

Same as that! The savings made booking with BA allowed us to book 3nights in the Poly at the end of our trip!! VA were looking for crazy money for our dates this time and we are not even going direct!!

Bad idea! Get your husband out of that middle seat asap! That is the least desirable seat; there is an excellent chance someone else will take the aisle or middle seat before you do.

How will an 18 month old fit in a bassinet?

If I were you, I take the aisle seat in the bulkhead row with the lap baby and give your husband and older son the aisle and middle seat in the row behind.

Hi, thanks for the feedback. So if I move us around then I will be in a single seat with my infant son and DH and our 3 year old will be behind us, right? There would be one seat beside me (row 15 which is a row of just 2 seats at the Windows) and a seat beside DH free which (if no one took during OLCI) we could assign to SIL and her 11 year old. I honestly don't know which way to do this, I want to be as close to the front of the plane as possible to try get through the rotten queue on arrival asap so really don't want to move back a few rows.
As for our 1 year old fitting in the bassinet, he most surely won't as he's a big boy but if there is someone else on the flight who genuinely needs it BA have told me we will be moved to accommodate the other family as my son doesn't get priority over an infant genuinely needing the cot. They said they assign them to families with lap infants under 2 to give them a little more lap space, not really for the cot use.
After reading this back I am thinking of changing the 3 of us (in seats) to row 16 which is still available. We won't get the extra lap space but we will be guaranteed to be up the front of the plane which would hopefully work out well for Customs. There is a high enough possibility we will be moved to another row altogether and then I wouldn't end up sitting anywhere near my DH and DS1.
Thanks again, your comment has really got me thinking!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I probably would move from the bulkhead because I hate bulkhead seats and also you risk getting moved, as you have already been told. Since your son is too big for the bassinet, why sit there?

Personally, I'd find a row of three seats and sit with my husband, son and lap baby. Your sister and nephew should be able to find two seats together at check-in; they don't need to sit with you.

 

[Wills Mom]

I probably would move from the bulkhead because I hate bulkhead seats and also you risk getting moved, as you have already been told. Since your son is too big for the bassinet, why sit there?

Personally, I'd find a row of three seats and sit with my husband, son and lap baby. Your sister and nephew should be able to find two seats together at check-in; they don't need to sit with you.

Thats exactly what I've done. I've moved myself and both boys into the row behind the bulkhead where I had DH already seated. I'm not going to mention this to SIL as she is a nervous flyer (hence why she wanted to be seated with us) until time to do OLCI and we can try get seats as closeby as possible. If she isn't handling the flight well I will get DH to sit with her and keep her DS with me and my boys for a while. Hes a mature 11 year old and really good with my boys so that would work if we need to switch

 

[lush]

Just found this when searching for something else on the BA FAQs. I'm not going to bother now but looks like a similar sort of idea to the VA ones.

https://ukprepin.custhelp.com/app/a...uby8xL3RpbWUvMTQyMTE4MTUwMS9zaWQvOUxqZTNuY20=

Hope that link works now!

 

[Wills Mom]

Just found this when searching for something else on the BA FAQs. I'm not going to bother now but looks like a similar sort of idea to the VA ones.

https://ukprepin.custhelp.com/app/a...uby8xL3RpbWUvMTQyMTE4MTUwMS9zaWQvOUxqZTNuY20=

Hope that link works now!

Oh thank you!! Thats very handy to know