Flying with Infant/Seat Request

[Zeebs]

hello people in the know.

Firstly I just paid £179.00 for my 10 month old son to sit on my knee from Gatwick to Orlando and back again, what a rip off. What exactly does he get for that price, better be a good meal at least.

Now I want to book our seats, however, when I go into the seat section there is hardly anything available and nothing in the bulk head with a sky cot. Is the seat selection hard and fast and if we don't reserve our seats chances are we may not be sitting together as a family. Or if we show up to the airport early enough check in staff will allocate us seats together and hopefully with a skycot (I realise the sky cot may not be a given) I really don't want to travel 9 hours not sat next to my husband with a child on my lap and I also doubt he wants to be sat 9 hours with just our 2 year old for company as well. (Note hubby and son number 1 are on one booking ref and myself and son number 2 are on another to confuse it all joys of booking with airmiles)

The rep has just advised she has added Seth to my booking reference however when I go into my booking reference he isn't there, so I can't order him a childs meal. Is he likely to show up on my booking reference so I can do this at a later date or will I need to call and do it through the virgin help people.

Thanks in advance
Kirsten

 

[DADAD]

We Travled To Wdw In 2006 With My 18 Month Old Grandson
He Also Did Not Have A Seat It Was Fine
We Where Told We Could Not Have A Sky Cot Becuase He Was To Old Max Age For Them Was 12 Months But You Should Still Check Might Have Changed It
Also He He Was Not Given A Childs Meal As That Had To Be Paid For
As Na Extra We Only Paid £75 For Him
Going Back This Year With Him But He Got His Own Seat This Time

 

[Claire L]

As far as I know you cannot use the online facility to pre book seats if you have an infant, and you need to call VA and they will assign bulkhead and skycot.

Claire

 

[Zeebs]

We Travled To Wdw In 2006 With My 18 Month Old Grandson
He Also Did Not Have A Seat It Was Fine
We Where Told We Could Not Have A Sky Cot Becuase He Was To Old Max Age For Them Was 12 Months But You Should Still Check Might Have Changed It
Also He He Was Not Given A Childs Meal As That Had To Be Paid For
As Na Extra We Only Paid £75 For Him
Going Back This Year With Him But He Got His Own Seat This Time

He will be 10 months when we fly so should qualify for sky cot.

You paid extra for his meal !!!!!!!!!!! what does my £179 cover then nothing but taxes and administration then.

Kirsten

 

[ALBA]

Hi,

We have travelled quite a few times with DD, who is coming up for two.

Unfortunately, most of your £179 is tax, the infant fare is only around 10% of the adult fare + the dreaded tax.

I was told not to book seats when travelling with DD on our lap. I recommend you call virgin to request a bulk head seat & skycot. The bulkhead seats with skycot positions are not guaranteed and can technically not be pre-booked, but if you call virgin they will place a request on your booking. I found it an advantage to call again around 48hrs before leaving the UK to confirm the request was on the booking. You cannot do on-line check in with an infant, well we have never been able to. The skycot limit is 12mths or 9kg, but they are really small and I found DD

We had the same problem where DD was linked to DH booking but she did not appear on the online booking but I had an e-ticket number for her. I called Virgin and she was on the booking but for security reasons she was not shown online. I requested a childs meal for her and she got it ok, without having to pay any extra.

Also, don't know if you know but your son is entitled to 10kg of checked luggage over and above the buggy, car seat & travel cot and also 6kg of hand luggage.

You say you've booked using airmiles. Is this Virgin miles? If so you must be a member of the flying club. I would call them instead of the customer service number and the FC call centre is in the UK.

Hope that helps.

Alba

 

[Zeebs]

Thanks for all the Alba, that is exactly what I thought, I will give them a call and note them down as a sky cot for preference, although the way the wee bean is growing at the moment he will be too heavy for it by the time we leave but at least if you have the bulk head you can let them stand up in front of your legs as there is a little bit more room.

Glad you haven't had to pay for a meal that too me sounds like a real rip off. I am tempted to pack him in my carry on if I could get him to stay quiet (laughing is for packing him not getting him to stay quiet just in case anyone thinks I am serious )

We have airmiles with Singapore Air so I will have to ring Virgin although my husband has a Virgin airmiles account just with hardly any miles in it.

Thanks again
Kirsten

 

[bevbev]

hi we flew last year with virgin to orlando when my son was 11 months we pre booked seats before we went, but done the twilight check in and was allocated 2 bulk head seats, they would not allocate us any more than that so hubby had 2 seat with ds on the otherside of the aisle. on the way back we done the down town check in, but could only get 1 bulk head seat! so i was on my own with hubby across the aisle with dd and ds. we did not get any food for the 11 month old as there were no spare meals either way and as he was an infant with out a seat he was not entitled to one!

bev

 

[aaronandterri]

Yes i had that one no seat no meal....actually since weve always paid for a seat eversince even for a little , one once you are paying taxes etc it doesnt seem a whole lot more, and once you divide it by 2 it seems worth it for the hassle it gives otherwise , the care chairs are ood for little ones,

also if the plane is empty and u dont pay for a seat u can move up to the back, we did that once and had a whole row to ourselves! just me and DS.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

hi we flew last year with virgin to orlando when my son was 11 months we pre booked seats before we went, but done the twilight check in and was allocated 2 bulk head seats, they would not allocate us any more than that so hubby had 2 seat with ds on the otherside of the aisle. on the way back we done the down town check in, but could only get 1 bulk head seat! so i was on my own with hubby across the aisle with dd and ds. we did not get any food for the 11 month old as there were no spare meals either way and as he was an infant with out a seat he was not entitled to one!

bev

Does this always happen??? My DH and I are travelling for the first time with DS4 and DS9mths and I am (as always!!) petrified of flying - I'm not sure I'll cope if we are not all sat together????

 

[Zeebs]

Yes i had that one no seat no meal....actually since weve always paid for a seat eversince even for a little , one once you are paying taxes etc it doesnt seem a whole lot more, and once you divide it by 2 it seems worth it for the hassle it gives otherwise , the care chairs are ood for little ones,

also if the plane is empty and u dont pay for a seat u can move up to the back, we did that once and had a whole row to ourselves! just me and DS.

Unfortunately the difference between seat and no seat was quite a lot like £30'0.

I am absolutely disgusted that they won't supply a meal because you haven't bought them a seat. I understand that most of the price I have paid is taxes but it isn't all taxes otherwise all airlines would charge exactly the same if it was just for taxes. Gee a childs meal would be a really expensive option as well.

Will they heat up baby food for you then?

I have never been on another flight long haul like that and not been offered a meal for my child. We have flown Air New Zealand and Singapore Air to New Zealand and they both treat you really well travelling with small children and babies. Singapore Air more so.

Kirsten

 

[ALBA]

Zeebs,

They will heat baby food & milk up for you, but I've found you need to time it yourself as with their other duties they can forget about it and it usually ends up too warm.

I used to take my own food, but since DD was eating more grown up food I've requested a baby meal and always received it....but maybe that's because we were in PE...who knows.

I found emirates the best when travelling with young children.

Alba

 

[ALBA]

Zeebs,

They will heat baby food & milk up for you, but I've found you need to time it yourself as with their other duties they can forget about it and it usually ends up too warm.

I used to take my own food, but since DD was eating more grown up food I've requested a baby meal and always received it....but maybe that's because we were in PE...who knows.

I found emirates the best when travelling with young children.

I think it's disgusting the cost of infant ticket, unfortunately most of it is made up from tax. I have booked 3 seats with flybe for an internal uk flight, the flight was free but the taxes, charges & baggage etc left us with a bill of £170!

Alba