Flying with toddler on 787

Hi,

Did a quick search on the forum and couldn't find what I was looking for, so hopefully if someone could point me in the right direction / give some insight it would be greatly appreciated!

Husband and son (2 years old in December) and I will be travelling LHR - HKG late Sep in PE, then returning HKG - LHR mid Oct in UC (both rewards using combination of miles and vouchers). As he is still under 2 years old by the time we fly we have opted for the cheap option and did not buy a separate seat for him.

Checked the tool on this site and see that LHR HKG route is now solely on 787. Never flown this aircraft before.

Son will be 1 year 9 months old by the time we make the outbound. We anticipate he would be too big for the bassinet (The VS site does not list the max weight and height limits for bassinet on the 787...). However we'd like to phone and request bassinet seats, just in case.

My questions are for the UC leg in particular. I see there's only 1 bassinet position, at the front of the plane. Would the access be easier on the A side or the G/K side? Would it be better to take 1A/2A or 1G/2G or 1G/1K or any other suitable combination?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Fish

Hi there be will definitely be too big for the bassinet. They're really designed for small babies Hopefully the flight won't be busy and you might get a spare seat next to you

Hi there be will definitely be too big for the bassinet. They're really designed for small babies Hopefully the flight won't be busy and you might get a spare seat next to you

Ah. Thanks.
In which case where could we strategically place ourselves so it'll be most convenient for all parties? (Us / Crew / Other pax?), for both UC and PE? Any recommendations?

For the PE leg we were thinking of trying to ring up and see if we could get the window side bulk heads (so 21AC or HK). Found some footage on youtube which shows that there's a bit more space there so the little one could possibly stand if he wanted to (after seatbelt sign's off, of course...!!). In an ideal scenario since both flights are night flights he should be sleeping but I'm not banking on anything..!!

For the UC leg I'm just stumped, as all seats seem fairly similar. Would it be better towards the front of the plane because it's further away from the bar? Or towards middle because it'll be away from galley? Or it really doesn't matter?....

We have just returned from the trip and I'll give a few points specifically on the experience of flying with the toddler.

On the PE leg we were very lucky to have been moved to the bassinet seats at 21A and C - only realised our seat numbers had been changed when I went to do OLCI.

I think we definitely benefited from the extra space we had at our feet. Toddler definitely enjoyed pressing the buttons everywhere - at the window, on the console, (pressing the call button multiple times... argh!). We declined the use of the bassinet seat as he was just too big for it I think.

Food wise for dinner he had a separate child's meal, which was a pasta with a creamy tomato sauce, with a honey greek yogurt, and a bottle of apple juice drink (don't remember if he was given anything else on top of that...). He was also given a separate breakfast.

On the UC leg we had 1A and 2A. I had thought it was the bassinet seat as it was facing the bassinet position on the seat map. But on check-in the check-in agent informed us that bassinet seat is 1G. We could actually let him lie flat with us anyway so it didn't really matter.

We quite liked the fact that there were no toilets at the front so we weren't really bothered by the people and the smell. The toilet immediately behind 11A is a bigger toilet which made nappy changing a bit easier.

Food wise for dinner he was given a tomato pasta with peas on top which was the absolutely most perfect meal they could have come up with for him. For breakfast I suppose we could have requested anything but because he was being a handful we just gave him stuff off our own plates.

All in all the crew were excellent on both flights, we were lucky because both flights were night flights toddler just slept most of the way.

Turns out on both flights Economy was fairly empty so I think we would probably have had more space in Economy and occupy a whole row to ourselves. But as I don't own a crystal ball nor know how to use it to predict the future, the miles I spent in redeeming the reward flights were worth it.

I do think though if he had been older (i.e. past 2 years old) it would really be a tight squeeze to sleep on the same bed as us in UC, and would definitely need his own seat, but I personally wouldn't be 100% for him to sleep on his own as he could well slip off and toddle off somewhere else without me knowing. Fair enough he won't get lost but wandering off on his own wouldn't really be safe.

Hope this helps anyone who's going to fly with a toddler on a B787. Welcome to ping me any questions!

Fish

If your toddler is not having his own seat, what you need to do is practise at home. Sit on a chair and face a wall for an hour with him on your lap and see how you get on. That will be the PE experience if you have prolonged spells of turbulence and you could find it pretty uncomfortable IMHO. You just can not bank on there being a spare seat for him.

If your toddler is not having his own seat, what you need to do is practise at home. Sit on a chair and face a wall for an hour with him on your lap and see how you get on. That will be the PE experience if you have prolonged spells of turbulence and you could find it pretty uncomfortable IMHO. You just can not bank on there being a spare seat for him.

Exactly. Which is why I think the buttons on the entertainment handset were very attractive!

The kids entertainment on the flight was actually pretty decent. I liked the shortcut to all kids programs, was able to select them quickly (Thomas and Friends, Finding Dory, Blinky Bill, Angry Bird, etc etc.) A god send especially on the UC leg as we were able to get him to sit still during take off. We were on the bulkhead on the PE leg so no entertainment on takeoff but he was at least able to look out the window and play with the window dimmer buttons....

And not banking on an extra seat for him was exactly the reason why we splashed out on PE and UC instead of Econ. Game changer in a few months when he turns 2 and will have to have his own seat.