A pond-hopping dad sent this in:
Last year, as we took our boys to Finland, we encountered a variation on the typical airline bassiets which was quite useful.Sigh indeed. They look like little busines class seats.
According to the BA staff, our 767s had an additional type of bassinet which was for toddlers. Our twins were then 1 year old, and they slept peacefully the entire way through both transAtlantic flights. If you look carefully, you'll see that these bassinets are shaped more like a La-Z-Boy and are not simply box-shaped, as are most airline bassinets.
I don't know if other airlines or aircraft have these, and they have to be arranged ahead of time. We certainly enjoyed being able to eat, drink and watch a movie rather than spend the entire flight catering to the boys.The nicest thing about those bassinets was to watch everyone file out at the end of the flight and listen to quite a number of them say that the boys were amazingly quiet for the entire flight. Twin babies must be a daunting sight for a long, nightime flight.
The London-Helsinki flights did not have these (sigh).
update: fellow twindad geoff actually looked it up on ba.com; the bassinets are first-come-first-served, and they're by Britax.]
Any idea what the weight/length limits are on these bassinets?
After a quick search on ba.com, i found this:
ba.com: Travelling with infants
What inflight amenities do you provide for my baby?
British Airways is the first airline to offer a specifically designed seat for infants/babies. Designed by Britax, the seat is ideal from 6 months to 2 years, but could also be used from birth. The seat can be used in a variety of positions from horizontal to vertical.
The maximum allowed weight of the child in Britax seats is 13kgs/29lbs.
Britax infant seats are not pre-bookable, they are allocated on a first come first served basis at the airport or onboard the aircraft.
Carrycots and infant seats are available free of charge on all longhaul flights, except in First class on Boeing 777/767 aircrafts where only infant cots are available.
These seats are normally located at the front of each cabin section (the bulkhead position), therefore when you make your booking please request a bulkhead seat to ensure the carrycot position.
Currently bulkhead seats cannot be requested online, therefore to request a bulkhead seat to ensure the carrycot position, please contact your local British Airways sales office.
Telephone numbers can be found if you click here.
Wow they look comfortable. Maybe they should provide those to adults too then we can sleep through the flight. lol
Hi,
I sent in the original post, based on our summer trip to Helsinki last year. We got the same type of infant seats this year; the boys turned 2 in the middle of our trip, and the only info that I had obtained from BA over the phone regarding size limits was that the child(ren) must not be over 2 years of age. Although the seats had worked well last year, one of the boys is so attached to his mother that he would not sleep in it this year on the way to Finland. After an hour of crying, my wife held him for the rest of the trip, during which he slept. The other twin, Tom (shown in the solo photo), slept well in his seat. They are a bit too big for the seats. Tom is 88 cm in height and I figure that he is about 4 cm too big... though he still slept well in it. If any other fathers of big twins try this, don't place them facing each other because they are able to kick each other a bit. They are also popular. On our return flight we could only get one, and so my wife again endured the one boy sleeping on her for 6 hours while I had a relaxing flight. Let's hear it for mother love!
Mike
I am traveling by British alone with my 18 mnth old from US to India and had a few questions about these seats, hope you can answer. I have not booked a seat for him as I am depending on these britax seats.
a) how early did you go to get them?
b) they seem a bit high, can you feed them while you sit comfortably and also, can you turn the seats so that they face you (for easy feeding)
c) Where is your meal table located (in your arm rest?)
d) where is the TV located? also do they have games/channels for kids? is the screen per seat/per person? The last time I traveled by British they just had common screens and we could not control what they played. I ask as I am wondering if I need to take a DVD player with me for my kid to keep him occupied
d) can you make these upright, so your kid is in a sitting position?
e) does the airline provide milk for babies or do you have to carry your own for the entire trip?
Thx
Dee
I just flew to the UK with my wife and our 22 month year old. The seat worked for a few hours, but our daughter is tall, and her legs stuck out over the seat, plus she found turning difficult. Hence, we only used it a bit. Also, we were in the middle 4 seats, and the seat infringes on the very middle 2 seats. Your better bet is to hope that the plane is not full, then you can move somewhere and get your child a seat to him or herself (we had 4 whole seats to ourselves on our return trip home).
Cheers,
Gabe
I know KLM offers these, too. We are using one next month for a flight from the U.S. to Amsterdam for our 1 y.o. KLM says the weight restriction is 10kg (or a little over 22 lbs), so it works for us!