European airlines are reportedly phenomenal for traveling with infants and children, and it was quite easy for me to find information from them. Our airlines in the States, however, weren't nearly as ready to provide details about the amenities available on Transatlantic flights. It took several phone calls to various airlines before I realized that there may or may not be bassinets on the plane. That's the answer I received over and over again. We finally settled on US Airways as we've always had good luck traveling through Charlotte and are big fans of their Dividend Miles program.
We booked two tickets in row 1 of the Envoy (business class) cabin planning to hold Baby Girl in our laps. Upon booking, the agent over the phone was able to tell me that there are usually basinets available in the bulkhead row of economy class, but she was unsure if they were available in business class. This seemed a bit silly to me, that the lower cost cabin may have an amenity the business class did not, but when she said she could at least request one, I was happy because that's probably all they could've done in economy, too. When we checked in, we reiterated our request and were told we would need to ask at the gate immediately before boarding the plane, which we did. Something I immediately liked was that they invited families to board with the business class passengers. I will be honest, this once annoyed me because I always wanted to board quickly and get comfortably in our seats when traveling business class without having to wait for children. I will now publicly apologize for this because after standing with baby on hip for ages on other airlines (Delta, American) I understand how difficult this is! But, back to this flight...
We fully expected terrible looks and mutters from other business class passengers and flight attendants as we boarded, but we were welcomed with sweet baby comments from all around. One of the attendants even held Baby Girl for us while we settled in our carry-ons, etc, at which point she told us that most Transatlantic flights have 2 bassinets available and as soon as we were airborne they would set it up for us. Oh how thankful we were for this news! So, as many had advised, we fed our sweet baby during take off and just as she finished, the bassinet arrived complete with pillow and blanket (I just said "thank you", didn't mention these could be deadly for my darling as I quickly stashed them in my own seat). It sat securely on the floor in front of us with flaps that folded over and zipped so that in case of a few bumps, she wouldn't "bounce" out of it. We swaddled her up in her trusty Woombie (yet another post), laid her into her bassinet and settled in for our dinner. And can you believe she slept right up until we finished breakfast? It is true! At that point the bassinet was put away for landing as I fed her during the descent. Could a first flight have gone any better? I think not! And we were just as lucky on the return trip with all the same treatment again. Not sure that all the airlines have them, but that bassinet was truly a God send for us! I'm guessing the next Transatlantic flight won't be quite as easy as the bassinet is only for babies less than 22 pounds and I'm certain that once a baby can roll over and sit up it wouldn't work so well.
I hope this little tid-bit of traveling with your own haute tot is helpful!
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