British Airways or Virgin Atlantic and carseats?

Has anyone flown British Airways and used a child restraint on board? I would like to use my 2 free tickets to travel to London this winter, but I'm concerned they won't let my 3 y.o. use his seat on board (and I'll thus be forced to check it). I don't mind from a safety perspective him not using the seat (we have a CARES) but I don't want his seat checked.

BAs website says 6 months to under 3 are allowed to use a FF car seat. He will be almost 4 when we fly (late Feb and his birthday is in late April).

My other option is to go Continental, but the return flight (originating in London) is a code share and operated by Virgin Atlantic. I couldn't find anything on their website about child restraints. Has anyone had experience with Virgin Atlantic?

I thought BA had lifted the three year restriction a few years ago? I'd call them and double check that (and call a couple of times, see what the average answer is).

Is it a Continental flight or a VA flight? If it's a Continental you're good.

Honestly, when we fly internationally, I'm fine with stops and a longer trip if we get American carriers. That way we don't need to worry about rear facing or age.

Wendy

I'm trying to fly using miles bc we have a bazillion of them. There aren't really connecting flights as I'm going NYC to London, not much in between for stops lol.

Thanks for the tip on British Airways. I'll give them a few calls. Maybe I will call their UK customer service and see what they say too. I can always wait until next year to use those miles (my son will likely booster in cars there at that point...he'll be just under 5 and prob 45-50 pounds).

The Virgin Atlantic flight will be booked through Continental but operated by Virgin. It would be Virgin flight attendants but a Continental ticket.

So I've figured out that BA doesn't allow RFing seats at all. Thus I might try to take my chances with them this year and save the other miles for next year. Next year I'll have an 8 month old and almost 5 year old on this trip and would like to travel with an infant seat. More importantly, I don't think I would like to put an 8 month old ffing on a plane, even in a convertible.

I do understand why airlines wouldn't want rfing seats on planes since the person sitting in front of it can't recline and they obstruct emergency exit, but the whole thing is annoying for parents and dangerous for babies.

My son is peanut allergic which severely limits domestic carriers we use (can't fly on airlines that serve peanuts). This is a whole other annoyance. Although, in my case I'd happily chose to ff an 8 month old on a plane over fly with peanuts everywhere (one represents a small risk of injury and miniscule risk of death, the other a very high risk of death).

If anyone else has experiences to share I'd love to hear them.

I would NOT go with Virgin Atlantic. They do not allow car seats of any kind on board, except their own version, "the care chair". It's awful. There is no way it would be reclined enough installed rf (which they allow under 1 yr I believe), and ff it's so uncomfortable! We flew in May/June, here are a couple of pics. I meant to do a thorough review with more pics, but I just never got to it. And I was a little stressed about flying with 16 month old I'm not sure about BA, I've flown with them many many times, but not since we had a child.






There was terrible slump, the crotch strap was waaay out, I had to stuff a blanket there. He fell asleep but kept waking up from being so uncomfortable, poor guy. And watching them install it was a trip There is a metal square frame type of thing that they need to attach to the seat first, then the seat sort of snaps in. It took 3 hostesses both times to try and figure it out.

That is really good to know. If I go with the continental/virgin option maybe I'll leave the seat at my cousin's place for my son to use next year (if it still fits). I don't need or particularly want a restraint for him on board I just need it while there and don't want to check it.

I curse the uk for being so carseat incompatible with my safety requirements (they ff and booster way too early for my liking and thus don't have a seat on the market I can just leave there for him...if they had locking seat belts I'd booster and lock but they don't and I'm not comfortable with him having that much freedom).

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.

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.

Just to note, using a normal, folding metal luggage cart works even better than the Gogo at a fraction of the price. I've had mine over 20 years and countless flights. It's easier to get on and off than the Gogo too.

If you fly BA, you could try to simply bring a car seat on board and install it ffing and see if they notice. European companies are not as strictly regulated as American companies are so you may be able to get away with it. It's not like they have to worry about FAA inspectors like we had to when I flew!

Isn't Delta coshared with BA? I've bought Lufthansa tickets and flown United the whole way. It doesn't matter what is on your ticket. If you can get yourselves on a U.S. company, than you can rf and use a restraint for as long as you wish. See if you can buy a BA ticket with coshared Delta flights. Not sure if they fly this route though (although Pan Am did and Delta now owns PA's old JFK flights).