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Has anyone had any experience with airline bassinettes? We are flying to the UK next week with Virgin Atlantic and have ordered 2 bassinettes for our (almost ) 13 month old twins. I went on to the web site and it said they provide them for 12 month olds and younger. My two are really little though for 13 months so I hope they 1 will give them to us and 2 the babies will fit into them.
What do you all think?:fingerscrossed:
mysonroger
22-05-2006, 20:41
i hope you get them because qantas couldn't give a **** about mothers flying with babies. they are more concerned that their business men silver frequnet flyers are more comfortable. i have flown twice on my own with a 22 month old and 6 month old, 5 hour flight each time, and i requested the bassinet seats with the booking, got to the airport early and still couldn't get the seats. the bassinets were empty, because they allocated those seats to business men.
hopefully virgin honour your request.
OscarTheGrouch
22-05-2006, 20:41
We flew overseas last month. Lachlan barely fit in it and he was 7 months at the time. Though he is quite a long baby.
OscarTheGrouch
22-05-2006, 20:42
i hope you get them because qantas couldn't give a **** about mothers flying with babies. they are more concerned that their business men silver frequnet flyers are more comfortable. i have flown twice on my own with a 22 month old and 6 month old, 5 hour flight each time, and i requested the bassinet seats with the booking, got to the airport early and still couldn't get the seats. the bassinets were empty, because they allocated those seats to business men.
hopefully virgin honour your request.
Same with Air New Zealand. They basically ignore you. And as you say are too busy looking after their business customers.
mysonroger
22-05-2006, 20:45
Same with Air New Zealand. They basically ignore you. And as you say are too busy looking after their business customers.
i was so ****ed off with it happening more than once i ended up writing a letter and they still couldn't give a ****. i hate qantas, but we've got points to use so we still keep flying them
Well this has actually happened to me. I was flying to NZ with DD when she was about 13 months old and we requested the bassinette. When we got their they said those seats wern't available, so we thought ok fair enough. Then we see a buisnessmen sitting in the seat with a bassinette infront of him folded up, ya know , he wasn't even with a child. So my DH went up to him and asked him if we could swap seats as we have a young child who needs to use the bassinette. The guy was so nice about it and said yes straight away! He said he thought it silly that he got it before us anyway!:)
But I know what you mean about never getting one. We had to start flying business class just so we could guarentee a bassinette! sooo expensive!!
Could you tell the airline how important it is as ur child will scream the whole way unless they are asleep in a basinnette??:p Honestly, make them know how awful the flight will be for everyone if you don't get the bassinnette. Other than that, ask who ever gets it to swap if te don't have kids. Never know, could get lucky.
Ps :fingerscrossed: and good luck!!! I know how hard it is flying with 1 toddler let alone 2!!:p
Oh as for size, u may be able to fit them both in, might be a bit of a squeeze but im sure itl be nice and snug. as from 13 months my DD was too long to fit in.
We have flown several times with DD.
The first time she was only 7 months and like others said, it was too short for her. She was crumpled up in it, trying to sleep (yes she has always been tall too). However they claim these basinettes are meant to be for up to 2 year olds. Not sure which 2 year old its in them.
What's worse is that they keep coming up and telling you "we are taking off, please wake your baby and hold them in your lap. We hitting tubulence, it is dangerous, please wake up your baby and put them on your lap; we are landing, please... "well you get my jist now. Poor DD was absolutely miserable, so we told them to just t ake the damn bassinette away. It wasn't worth the grief.
The next time we travelled, they brought us the basinette and we told them to just take it away. She was barely 1 and she only fit into it up to her knees. Her legs were dangling off the end. It was ridiculous. They wouldn't allow us to just put a blanket on the floor while normal flying, and let her sleep or even play on it. We took turns with DH holding her in our laps.
A few of the longer flights, we were fortunate enough to have some legs of our flights with empty seats next to us, so we'd let her lie across the seats.
You want to know about poor airlines? singapore had us sitting poolside on one of our flights. :mad:
The aircon was not just leaking, it was like raining down into the seat before we got there. My assigned seat had a pool of water on it.
We had a lovely 18 hour flight in that seat. I cocmplained, they changed the sitting part of the seat and stuck paper napkins over the vent! :mad:
By take of obviously they were drenched, so they put a blanket over the airvent(very high tech!). I kept complaining because we were getting wet and DD was sleeping on my lap.
When the blanket fell off drenching us at take off, well.. ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!!!
We were ropable. There was a lovely young lady next to DH who turned out to be a Dr and was extremely angry at what we were put through. She asked them to move her, so we could take her seat saying we wold probably get pneumonia if we were made to sit under that airvent any longer.
Wow... i sure can talk, can't I? Sorry... :ecomcity:
shelbelbabe
22-05-2006, 21:23
natasha
Then we see a buisnessmen sitting in the seat with a bassinette infront of him folded up, ya know , he wasn't even with a child. So my DH went up to him and asked him if we could swap seats as we have a young child who needs to use the bassinette. The guy was so nice about it and said yes straight away! He said he thought it silly that he got it before us anyway!
if it happens,do that... the people who get the seats should be nie enough to swap. or maybe get in in writing? dunno
mysonroger
22-05-2006, 21:26
if it happens,do that... the people who get the seats should be nie enough to swap. or maybe get in in writing? dunno
the airline hosties asked them all, including a women amongst them and nobody would swap for two seats to themselves up the back. then one guy did swap so i walked on up to where those business men were sitting and sat right next to them and one of my bubs was screaming, and i thought ha ha...you little ripper. scream in that man's ears please. sucked in. you see if they had swapped, they would have been up the back in peace.
other times, nobody would swap. i could never do that to somebody. my DH is a silver FF flyer and i have told him he must give up his seat to somebody with a child.
I have family in Sydney and Melbourne, and have flown quite a lot with DD, who is now 10 months. I have never asked for a bassinette on these flights- I didn't know they had them on domestic flights. Having said that the staff have been fantastic when i travel with DD, We usually travel virgin and i have never had any problems.
We travelled to canada on JAL and they were absolutley fantastic. DD had the bassinette, and she was comfortable. She was about 7 months, she is long.....and dare i say it a little on the chubby side. the hostesses were really nice- they even took her for a walk around the plane so that we could eat our meal! they heated our bottles for us and were really nice on every flight.
We are travelling again in sept, and DD will be 14months old.....not sure that she will fit in the bassinette then!!!
Chickadee
22-05-2006, 22:06
My DD fit into the bassinette at 10-11 months for a trip from Perth to Los Angeles with no problem. She is a bit short for her age. Those were the ones that flip down from the bulkhead, flying Qantas-United. There is also a weight restriction but I imagine your twins should be fine for weight.
We went to the UK with QAntas when DS was 1yr old and to be honest he only just fitted the bassine t and he is quite small and only weighed about 9-10kg, he didnt sleep very well in there coz i think it was so small and confined he probably felt claustrophobic!! plus whenever i put him in it he wanted to stand up which was quite dangerous...the time he did fall asleep i put him in it, went to sleep myself, half an hour later he climbed out of the bassient (he got himself under the safety harness) and thankfully fell into my lap, he could have easily fell on the floor, so i didnt sleep at all after that!! mind you nor did he!!!
Thanks everyone. Im sure we will be fine for weight, dd is only 9 kg and ds is 8kg. Im going to ring the airline today and see what they say about promising me bassinettes.
We may be moving to the UK for a few years and this trip is to check out some business opportunities over there so we may be back in the air again around November so I hope it all goes OK.
OscarTheGrouch
23-05-2006, 11:13
The best way to make sure you get the front seats with the basinette facilities is the pre-book your seats a few days before hand, that's what I did.
Hi
Good luck with your trip. I have just got back from a trip to the UK with my DD who was 8 months.
We flew Malaysian Airlines, unfortunately they were hopeless:mad: but thats a whole other thread. I got the basinette it was quite small but DD isnt too long so she was snug and managed to sleep a fair bit. I saw other longer babies in them and they still managed to sleep with their legs dangling out.
We hitting tubulence, it is dangerous, please wake up your baby and put them on your lap; we are landing, please... "well you get my jist now. Poor DD was absolutely miserable, so we told them to just t ake the damn bassinette away. It wasn't worth the grief. - they MA basinette has got a bit of material which goes accross the middle and you zip it up when bubs is in it. They didnt once ask us to get her out when we hit turbulence.
Everytime I spoke to the airline before travelling I asked them to confirm that we had the basinette booked, I also got them to check at each checkin. I dont think it does any harm to hound them about this. I also booked meals for bubs but was only offered a meal once:rolleyes: Take plenty of food with you.
I definately found the basinette useful if only to sit bubs in to feed her. Also she was happy to sit and play in there for a little while.
One tip - take some masking tape, weird I know but it comes in handy to hang a blanket over the basinette to block out the light and nosey well meaning people who have a habit of peering in and waking up bubs!
Good luck!
red crayon
23-05-2006, 15:33
Hi O&GMUM,
Just adding my experiences to the mix. Due my partner's work contract, we usually fly Singapore Airlines and they are pretty good in terms of dealing with kids. I no longer bother with the bassinette because 1. Spencer won't sleep in it and 2. if there is turbulence you have to take the baby out. Instead, we have discovered that, rather than taking the bulkhead, we try to get three seats together and then we can push the armrests up and Spencer sleeps in the middle sleep lengthways.
Also - see if you can get baby meals on your flight. The Singapore Airlines 'post-weaning baby meals' are pretty good.
Good luck :D
I spoke to my travel agent today who said the airline will not garantee the bassinettes! DH is flying to Thailand tonight and coming back on Sunday so Ive told him to speak to someone while he is at the airport. I might try to call them tomorrow as well.
Im a travel agent and no one wil guarantee you a bassinet, mainly due to the fact if they guarantee everyone who might ask they would get into trouble if they guaranteed more people than they had bassinets for!! Also they will give them in priority to the youngest babies first. Chances are you will get one but no one will give you 100% definite
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