The lowdown on British Airways baby seats VS booking your toddler their own seat on the plane
Wondering whether to book your older baby or toddler their own seat, or whether the provided sky cots / airplane baby seats that affix to the bulkhead will be big enough for a 1 year old?
There’s no doubt that older babies and toddlers are the hardest age bracket to cater for on a plane. They are too old to sleep comfortably for long periods in a bulkhead bassinet or in your lap, but too young to be comfortable sleeping in an upright plane seat. Plus attention spans are at an all time low with this age group!
We have four children and have flown long haul with this age group several times before. If it’s an overnight flight or there’s a change of a long nap, we do try and request a bulkhead seat and sky cot / child seat. None of my older babies or toddlers have ever slept successfully in the standard plane seats – they are just too upright for them at that age.
Can I take a car seat on British Airways?
We’ve considered bringing a car seat to install into a plane seat – this would have been a perfect solution for our young toddler, as he is used to knowing he needs to stay put in his car seat, and he sleeps well in it. But in the end, we concluded that although BA say you can bring certain types of car seat, the specifications on seat type / brand are not clear enough.
The closest match we could find was the Britax Eclipse, which is certified for air travel – but we were concerned that after going to all that effort to source the right seat and lug it to the plane there’s still a high chance that staff on the airplane would tell us it can’t be used as a seat in flight and it would end up unused in the hold, and us left with a normal plane seat for our 15 month old rather than a seat at the bulkhead carrycot position.
I think using car seats on planes might be more common in the US, but I’ve never seen anyone use a car seat on a British Airways plane. Plus, I suspect that using a car seat would mean the seat in front would not be able to recline, which would be awkward for other passengers.
We’ve also used an AmSafe CARES harness, which was fine for getting our toddler to know he was meant to stay in his seat, but wouldn’t have been a comfortable way for him to sleep.
So, really the only great option left for older babies and new toddlers is the upright bouncer style seat that fixes to the bassinet tables by the bulkhead seats.
British Airways baby seat for a toddler
Most airlines provide bulkhead bassinets for young babies. And some airlines also provide baby seat options for older babies and under 2 year olds. British Airways is one of those airlines – the BA baby seat is similar in shape and style to an infant bouncy chair.
On their website, British Airways state that their bulkhead baby seats are:
- suitable for infants up to 24 months who weigh no more than 12.5kg (27.5lbs)
- available on all long haul flights
- adjustable to a variety of reclined positions
- not to be used during taxi, take-off, landing and turbulence (when the fasten seatbelt sign is on)
What is better for a toddler – own seat or a BA baby seat?
We recently flew long haul on British Airways with our 15 month old (and his three older siblings).
On the way out (a day flight), we booked our toddler his own seat. On the way back ( an 8 hour overnight flight), we booked a bulkhead seat for me and him, so that we could make use of the BA baby seat – which turned out to be a much comfier sleeping option for him than attempting to get him to sleep in a regular upright plane seat.
Here is my 15 month old in the British Airways baby seat:
The tray underneath makes a handy storage space for all that baby / toddler paraphernalia!
He wasn’t that pleased about sitting in the bulkhead baby seat whilst awake, preferring to play on my lap. But once he was asleep, he slept in the BA baby seat for far longer than he would have in my arms or in the more upright plane seats – and it meant I got to have a good stretch of sleep too!
The seat is adjustable to a several positions. In hindsight I should have got an air steward to adjust it so it was on a more reclined setting, as his head would have been more comfortably supported – but I only realised this once he was asleep and I’d been able to successfully transfer him to the BA baby seat, and then I didn’t want to risk disturbing him! Nevertheless he slept for a couple of 3 hour stretches in the BA baby seat – pretty much the whole flight. And he is not THE greatest sleeper, usually.
His footed blanket wrap makes him appear longer than he actually is, his feet were hanging over the seat but only by a small amount. At 15 months, he is on the 75th centile for height and 50th for size.
I would say if your child is approaching two years old, they could be slightly big for the BA baby seat, but if they sleep comfortably in a car seat, they will probably sleep fine in a British Airways baby seat. You could potentially roll a blanket or plane pillow between their feet and the carrycot tray to support any dangling legs.
The bassinet seat can’t be used during take off, landing, or turbulence. During the flight, there were a few moments where the seat belt sight came on and I had to take him out of the chair – he is an extremely light sleeper so this could have been game over, but luckily he remained asleep and I was able to put him back in undisturbed once the seatbelt sign came back on.
Top tip: With the cot tray assembled, there is room for the food trays to slide easily in and out of the arm rest. However, the TV arm does not have enough room to go over the cot tray, so if you want to use the TV, make sure you have got it out before the bassinet tray gets assembled. This configuration with the TV out does block your access to the aisle, which means you do have to climb over the arm rest to get out.
Should I book my toddler his own seat or will he fit in a British Airways baby seat?
Between my four children, I have used the British Airways baby seats a couple of times with an older baby or toddler, and I do think the British Airways baby seat is a more comfortable sleeping solution for an under 2 year old in comparison to having their own seat on the plane – unless they are a ‘can sleep anywhere’ kind of child.
If you will be travelling long haul with an older baby or toddler, I would definitely recommend trying to get one of the BA baby seats by the bulkhead, as an upright plane seat or cares harness is just not going to be comfortable for long periods of sleep.
For more top tips and guides to travelling with kids, check out:
Essential Airplane Bassinet seat information – Everything you need to know about airplane baby bassinets, with over 60+ airlines listed!
10 Sanity Saving Tips for travelling with kids
Top Tips for Travelling with Kids – Are We Nearly There Yet?
14 comments
Hi Chloe! We’ve just booked to go to Miami from London in Feb so got a 10 hour day flight Coming up – we toyed with buying a seat but being accountants went for the cheaper option and used companion voucher and booked our son as an infant and picked the baby seat position. Can you collapse the panel when not using so they can play on the floor?! Have you ever been in the situation where they didn’t have the toddler seat to give you? I know it says on the website you can be bumped out the seat if there’s someone with a greater need?!We’ve booked the row of 3 in a massive hope there will be nobody in the 3rd seat but wondering if we should just change the booking and buy him a seat! He will be nearly 18 months. Any thoughts would be helpful! Thank you, Jen
Hi Jen. The infant seat takes a little bit of installation with some buckles etc so not quick to put up and down, but do-able if you need to. You could ask the air stewards to put it up once your son is ready to sleep, rather than at the beginning of the flight. Fingers crossed you get lucky with no one in the 3rd seat! I’d say your chances are decent if the flight is not full. Unlikely you will get moved from those seats unless there are more under 2s than bassinet spaces.
This is a really helpful page of information! I’m nervously booking out first lang haul trip with BA to see family in Australia and was wondering what the sleep situation would be for our then-to-be 14 month old because BA site seems to say that bassinet should be for children no longer than 65cm, sadly. Next I need to work out what the food situation is. I’m not worried about the first leg because I know we could likely get food pouches airside at LHR even if ours are compromised at security by being opened for tasting etc. I’m a bit nervous about Singapore security and the second leg, but no doubt we will survive it all somehow…
Thank you for this! We’ll be traveling from Florida to London with a 16 month old in summer 2023 and this really helped solidify our decision to go with British Airways bulkhead seats.
Hello! Do you have any comment on their experience of actually **reserving** an infant reclining seat? I have a bulkhead seat booked in the correct position where there was the cot image on the seat selection options. However I called to reserve one of the infant reclining seats because our 9 month old is too old/heavy for the carrycot/bassinet and I was told I was not able to reserve one. I’m concerned that there’s a possibility that there won’t be enough on board, say if they have some bassinets and some infant seats, but on the day it so happens that all the babies on board want the larger infant seats and no bassinets. Do they definitely carry enough on board and is it definitely not possible to reserve?
Hi, yes I think unfortunately this is right that you can’t actually reserve either the bassinet or the older baby seat. I’ve never been on a flight where they’ve said there aren’t enough to go around. If you are worried, best tactic is to board early and put in your request for the seat with cabin crew as soon as you get to your seat.
I was just on a Orlando-London flight with our 16 month old. As long as you are reserved for the bulkhead seats, then you should be fine. There’s only about 6 spots where a bassinet or bouncer seat could fit per plane and when the flight attendant pulled our bouncer seat out, it looked like there were others still available wrapped in plastic. Our guy is 25 lbs and just baaaaaarely fit in the bouncer seat. He didn’t like being in it when awake but it worked great for sleeping.
Thanks for coming back to give an update! Yes, it is a pinch when they are that age, but still works well for sleeping.
Do you still have access to the tv screens if you use the baby in fant seat or do you not get this option? I’m travelling with my 5 year old also and wouldn’t want to limit her options for in flight entertainment for the sake of the baby infant seat but seems very useful for long haul!
You need to get the TV screen out of the armrest before the baby seat is set up, but you can use it. The TV screen on the seat next to the seat with the baby seat in front will not be affected so you’ll be able to access that one fine too.
Thanks so much for writing this in such detail – it’s really helped with our flight planning to the USA!
I have been debating whether to book a separate seat for my 16-month-old or try to snag one of the BA baby seats and your experience really helped put things into perspective. Especially the note about getting the TV out before the tray is assembled
Hi, when booking your infant a child’s seat have always used the AmSafe CARES harness?
On the BA it’s states you have to book the back row, is this true and did you have to do this ?
Really useful information thank you.
Only used the harness for one flight. We didn’t use the back row. Perhaps it’s because the harness has to fasten around the seat behind it. But we had our own family member in the seat behind so no disruption to other passengers.