fsm

So was looking back to see who I had flown with.

AA 3 Times
US Airways Twice
BA Twice
Delta Once
Virgin Once
Charter Flight (aka flying cattle truck) Once

What I have found interesting lately I have found US Air to be more comfortable than the others, BA has the better staff, virgin staff can be hit or miss, not going to fly Delta unless significant savings.

The cattle truck was a vacation charter Glasgow to Orlando it was a last minute, cheapest flight I had, I paid the taxes & Fees and I think around £25, would not recommend to anybody but it worked for that specific trip, we did get a meal but I think that was the only time we saw any staff.

Next year planning on trying something different and flying Continental into Edinburgh from Newark.

IPM

We have two children (4 and 1.5) and tend to fly Upper Class on Virgin between LHR and Washington. Some tips:

- think about timings relative to sleep patterns
- check cabin formation of aircraft early on SeatGuru or similar to find a nice config and specify it at booking, then re-confirm it
- dedicated security channel at LHR is a real bonus
- Virgin will normally stow your stroller on board so you can go right to gate and have it there for you when you land
- my wife takes some blackout material and pegs and creates a tent canopy to block out light, which creates some amusement, but tends to be effective

If you're going from LHR to New York you might also look out for Singapore Airlines who are excellent with kids

Englishmum

There are some excellent points raised in post #5 of this thread, if travelling in WT+ or Club World on BA:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-seats-wt.html

Englishmum

Sorry - they don't travel on this route from the UK. I'm currently living in New Jersey and Singapore. They fly out of JFK to SIN via Frankfurt - still using their old 747's on this route, which I fly a few times a year. Their flight to Newark is a non-stop from Singapore (longest non-stop flight in the world 21.5 hours/18.5 hours depending on which direction) but it goes across the Pacific and is biz class only.

SQ is brilliant with children though - but I doubt that the O/P would want to fly LHR-FRA-JFK.....

emiwar

Hi there, not sure where or when you are flying but an alternative to throw into the ring would be to not fly at all!

Currently there are great deals on the QM2 crossing from Southampton to NYC. I think they even do crossings to LA/Flordia too. You could be looking around GBP700 each (not sure if you would have to pay for your toddler too) but get a 1 week cruise all expenses paid in the deal too. The bonus being is that there are no luggage restrictions - just bring as much stuff that will fit into the bedroom!

suburbanmum

Thanks all. We'll be flying LHR to IAD so American is out as are some of the other smaller US carriers. Think it'll be down to BA or Virgin.

I'd love to fly Virgin Upper Class. I've flown it before and found it to be excellent but we'll never be allowed to book that. I might check how many miles I have though as I think I may have enough for at least one upgrade from Premium and my husband has quite a few miles too.

Britinnyc

I flew with my 1 year old son on Virgin Atlantic JFK-LHR at the end of 2010. We checked his car seat and used the Virgin Atlantic supplied child seat. The VA child seat was terrible. I totally agree with prior comments from BritMum-in-US. The VA crew were incompetent and could not install the seat on either leg of our journey. The seat itself does not recline at all, which prevented our little guy from being remotely comfortable. He ended up on my lap for most of the flight which defeated the purpose of purchasing a seat for himin the first place. The one positive was VA allowed to check our own car seat in addition to our luggage allowance.

There's pics on another blog thread below where you can see the VA child seat and a poor, uncomfortable traveller. http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=153173

Last month we flew on American Airlines to Florida from NY, who allowed us to bring on and install ourselves our own FAA approved car seat. I bought with us our Britax Boulevard seat and had no problem installing it myself on board the plane. The aircrew did need to supply us with an extension belt to inactivate the airbag in the bulkhead seat belt. Our little guy had a pleasant and comfortable trip and looking back on the Virgin trip, I can’t possibly see us flying again on any other airline which doesn’t allow us to use our own car seats.

I’m now in the midst of planning another trip back to UK from NY this April. Typically, Virgin flights are the cheapest, but after calling them, they still refuse to accept any car seats on board, so I’ll have to find an alternative airline. Incidentally, if you do go with a carrier who allows you to take your own car seat onboard, I found the GoGo Kidz Travelmate invaluable. It easily straps to the back of your car seat allowing you to wheel it through the airport.

Bob

Not really, because the plane wouldn't be allowed to take off or land unless he was strapped into his own seat.

The whole thing about using own car seat or not probably boils down to liability insurance, but one set of inept crew is probably not a good reflection of an entire fleet of crew.

Yorkieabroad

Is that a new rule then? When ours were very young we didn't used to get them seats on short flights, They sat on our laps and we got those highly effective lap belt extensions for them. Never really saw the point of them - all they did was guarantee that the kid would be held close enough to be crushed by dad being thrown forward on his own lapbelt on impact......

Yorkieabroad

They have airbags??? What, like car air bags? Never knew that!

Bob

Don't know how new, or if it's carrier specific based on country of origin...but I've been on a few flights that were delayed on the runway because some stroppy parent wouldn't strap their kid into their seat and the pilot has always said that they will not be going further until everyone was strapped down.

Ash UK/US

The best planes I have ever flown on with a little one where BMI, I think they only fly into Washington now

I just got back a week ago, just me and my youngest daughter (4 years) went, I came back and put in a complaint to Delta regarding the way one of the flight attendants treated my daughter... she was without a doubt the worst flight attendant I have ever met!

philbrown901

I flew BA Club World LHR-Boston yesterday and watched first hand the staff do all they could for a young couple with a lively 1 year old. They did the same for us last year flying to Toronto with our little girl. I've flown economy with them internally in UK loads with her and never had anything but praise.

Will see how Virgin compare next month. The missus rates Virgin highly but has never flown them with our terrible two year old

hobbes79

I believe it depends on age. I think the cut off is 2 i.e. 2 and above they need to be in the seat. Under 2, on lap and with the lap belt extension.

I only vaguely know this after travelling to the UK with a 6-month old and a 2-year old.

6-month old on lap in lap belt.

2-year old in seat, belted in.

EDIT: The pain with the 6-month old, was that we got bulk head seats with the crib. But if the flight go bumpy, we had to take her out the crib and back onto being strapped on to our laps. Frankly, if she was asleep, I was willing to risk it! :-)

Yorkieabroad

Yeah, thats what I remembered - the 2 year cut off.

I can remember one very embarrassing flight when our middle boy was about 10 months old. Had the bulkhead crib, and there was a baby girl about the same age in the one next door. After takeoff they were sitting there gurgling to each other all cute and that, while we had dinner. Then it was time to nap and they both lay down and the one next door went to sleep. Ours took a bit longer, and decided he needed some company so before we could stop him, he lunged at the other one and smacked her on the head with his best "how you doin'"? face on. The answer, which the whole plane must have heard, was a resounding "no". Preparing himself for a lifetime of female rejection, he rolled over and went to sleep. The girl on the other hand, didn't go back to sleep and screamed all the way to Amsterdam. Boy, was that a long, embarrassing flight!