[Irons80]

I have been asked to move from Upper deck (64A) to accomodate an infant, so I definitely think they can be up there… I reluctantly agreed to move (crew told me I didn’t have to if I didn’t want to) and got 14k instead in an empty cabin, so it wasn’t too bad.
I think the issue is that upper deck passengers don’t want babies disturbing them (rightly or wrongly), so maybe crew don’t want to ask.
Alternatively, maybe they did ask the passenger and they simply refused, but they didn’t want you to know?

[batraveller2]

I have never seen a baby on the upper deck and would be quite disappointed to find one. The upper deck is usually a lot more peaceful and therefore I think it should remain this way.

[Stowage222]

The cot table is indeed at the rear of the U/D cabin in front of 64B but like many here I have never seen it used for babies. However, I don’t think there is an H&S issue with a baby travelling up there.

[SimonS1]

To be fair to BA it is a bit of a job to balance the needs of all passengers. If I had paid up to £100 to book a seat on the upper deck on top of a premium fare I certainly wouldn’t be shifting.

[acireale]

BAtraveller2, you don’t want an infant on the UD but don’t you think that 2 infants next to each other is much worse for the passenger on the lower deck since they keep waking each other up (not to mention the infants themselves). Most of the infants I see typically sleep through a long haul flight as long as they are in a cot

[FirstFleeter35]

acireale, I sympathise with your plight! I am crew for BA and there is an infant seat on the upperdeck, 64A on the rear bulkhead by the stairs. I havent ever seen it being used, not sure why, as we do allow children upstairs. I will always try and accomodate people travelling with infants and have moved many people over the years, but unfortunately, I cannot force people to move, and have to make it as favourable as possible for them, you never said how old your child is, one solution would have been to ask a person travelling alone in your vicinity to move upstairs,( empty seats permitting of course), leaving your infant with a club seat (obviously just for the cruise if they are sleeping),I have seen this happen before, but there isnt always someone travelling alone, and there are not always empyy seats, most pax on their own seated near an infant would jump at the chance of sitting upstairs! I do often get complaints from pax being seated next to babies, but in my experience about 80% of babies are rather well behaved and never make a sound! Travelling with children can be very stressful and Im sorry you didnt get your bassinet or britax child seat, unfortunately on some flights we have so many babies and not enough bassinet positions.

[AdrianHenryAsia]

I’m not quite sure how many of you travel with children & have experienced the difficulties associated with it.

Infants are allowed upstairs on the 747 and have just as much right to be there as any other fare paying passenger.

BA could have done so much here to try and provide a good service – i.e. could they have upgraded someone from J to F to accommodate? were there any spare seats so the infant could have their own seat next to a parent?

I find that the crew on board are very accommodating although in many cases, issues could have been resolved by ground staff before getting on board & all this does is cause more stress for parents.

I find BA’s treatment of families quite poor overall and therefore I now always book my child their own seat and pay the extra (although appreciate that not everyone could do this) . On a recent flight in F, the CSD came up to me personally and told me that it didn’t matter how much noise my child made because from the 7 people in the cabin, we were the only three seats who had paid to be there and the rest were upgrades!

We were all children once, sometimes parents don’t have a choice if they travel & quite often the last thing a parent wants is 11 hours on a plane with a child – so a little bit of flexibility and understanding by BA goes a long way to make the parents (& the rest of the customers in the cabins) journey as easy as possible.

[acireale]

Loyal BA, I was very glad to read your message since I was a bit surprised by the ‘adversion to infants’ that transpired from some of the other messages. You make a very good point, BA could have upgraded someone to F (J became full due to upgrades from W and Y, while there were 3 spare seats in F) and easily addressed the issue. I had even proposed that to Customer service in Heathrow but they were not willing to do this. I also agree that typically the cabin crew does its best to accomodate but their hands are clearly tied compared to fligth management since they can only act once passengers have boarded and appear to be given no authority (except perhaps for the CSD) to make upgrades and the likes

[MartynSinclair]

@ 07/01/2012 04:09 GMT

“Infants are allowed upstairs on the 747 and have just as much right to be there as any other fare paying passenger.”

……..and whats your point!

This is not about whether an infant should be permitted upstairs or any noise that the infant may or may not make (plenty of other threads for that), but about a parent who feels that their child should be given priority seating over a passenger who may have paid for a seat reservation.

So next time I need to work off two laptops, during a flight, does that give me the right to book a basinet seat to rest 2 the lap tops on?

As for an upgrade from Club to First to free up a Club seat – really!!

“I now always book my child their own seat and pay the extra” – pity more people didn’t follow your example.

[LuganoPirate]

What always disturbs this mild mannered pirate, is the way so many parents think they have divine rights when it’s comes to their offspring. I’m not batting at you acireale but in general.

Babies screaming throughout a flight – “well they’re babies and that’s what babies do, it’s impossible to keep him/her quiet”.

Kids making noise and air playing to whatever they’re listening to – “we’ll, we were all kids once weren’t we?”

They get priority boarding, assistance through immigration and heaven forbid if you don’t move out of the way of these mothers charging along with prams more akin to a Sherman tank. And it’s never their fault when they hit you. “I’ve got a sleeping baby you know” they petulantly declare.

On one flight from Milan to London in Y, I was seated next to a mother with her baby. Unbelievably she asked me to hold the crying stinking brat while she got the tools needed to change him. I refused telling her I didn’t even hold my own children so certainly would not do it for a strangers. If looks could kill I’d have been dead there and then.

Final irony was about 45′ into the flight, when brat was finally asleep and haressed mother looking forward to a bit of rest, I sneezed! Baby woke up and cryed the rest of the way to LHR. I’m surprised I’m still alive today!!!

[PatJordan]

Oh LP, mild mannered pirate you most certainly are, but there lurks a latent devilish streak there too !!

[AdrianHenryAsia]

Martin – other posters have made comments in this thread that they thought children were not allowed/should not be upstairs on the 747 – I am simply stating that they are.

The point I am making, which you seem to have missed, is that BA could recover the situation if they truly believed in providing good customer service. Operational upgrades happen as a matter of course every day of the week. What is a better position – have a whole cabin in J have to listen to a screaming baby for 11 hours because it can’t sleep or give some lucky traveller an upgrade to F (assuming spare seats) and keep the rest of the J cabin happy?

I don’t think any traveller should give up a seat they have paid for and I didn’t say that in my post so please don’t infer anything that has not been said. I do think that BA could do more though to be accommodating, especially where the situation could be fixed but due to the draconian attitudes of some and a “computer says No” mentality.

[FirstFleeter35]

I have upgraded people in the past to provide bassinet positions for parents, but sometimes this is not always possible if the aircraft is full. Upgrading is something that is done as a last resort, particulary as most of us are too scared to sneeze on board these days! Many pax could be a little more understanding where young travellers are concerned, but also, I have had to tell parents to control their children who sometimes are left to run amok while mum and dad have a snooze! I will help any parent with their children but we are not a baby sitting service! And also, my pet hate is when parents change their babies nappies on the seats, and then they ask you to dispose of the nappy for them, err no! Im a food handler, so am not touching it thanks! And people have to sit in those seats after you have changed baby’s nappy, not nice1

[HonestCrew]

Please remember folks that BA’s Phoenix flights are operated by Mixed Fleet crew. These crew follow BA’s instructions to the letter worried if they do something ‘non-standard’ (such as an unauthorised upgrade) they will be hauled in to the office.
BA are happy with the crew to just apologise and refer them to customer services after the flight. When you employ 18 yr old crew with no flying or customer service experience and direct entry chief pursers who won’t look outside the box, situations like this occur.

It is very very rare for a customer to move from the upper deck, especially when telling them they will have to sit near another infant.
Whilst you do have my sympathy, dealing with the grumbles of a cabin full of customers who have paid £1000’s for a peaceful night sleep and not had it, it does raise the question, could an airline offer infant-free cabins on certain flights and promote this?

Would a customer be happy to pay and extra £50 compared to a competitor for the guarantee they will not be disturbed by a baby?

[LuganoPirate]

It the eye patch that does it Pat!

Honest, I’d pay £100 for that guarantee!

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