Virgin Airlines toddler seat

[aj693]

I'm about to fly long haul and Virgin have offered me a toddler seat for my three year old. They say it's like a car seat and will be more comfortable for him. However they also say that if I take up the option I will not be able to remove the seat if it doesn't work out. As we are flying at night, I'm imagining he will be sleeping for good portion of the flight, and worry that he would be less comfortable in a car seat for 11 hours than he would be laying half in his seat with his head on my lap as I used to when flying long haul as a child.

I of course hope that there will be plenty of spare seats in the middle rows of four, so we can spread out a bit, but our pre-assigned seat formation is 2 seats together, window and aisle....

Does anyone have any experience of these toddler seats? Can you offer any suggestions?

[Pickle]

Hey AJ,

I'm just back from NZ - we fly Singapore Airlines who don't offer toddler seats, but C slept pretty well simply sitting in his seat with pillows around him to rest his head on. We managed to make quite a cosy little bed for him using a combination of pillows and blankets. M slept lying down, with her head away from me and her feet on me, as that seemed to be her preferred position.

I would tend to say not to get a toddler seat, as it takes away your options - if he's not comfortable in it you then have a long flight on your hands with a grumpy 3 year old!

P x

[craigy]

We flew Virgin long haul overnight last Nov with a 2 and a half year old and were offered nothing like that.. He was fine in a normal seat and thankfully the flight was only about 2/3 full so there was plenty of space for him to stretch out.. However, despite being a champion sleeper he did not seep a wink the whole flight... I think I would be a little dubious about a special seat that you cannot remove as could be very uncomfortable for both of you... I did find that Virgin cabin crew were fabulous with a toddler though and really tried to entertain him..

Good luck..

[aj693]

Thanks guys, that's kind of what I thought.... Don't think I'll bother with the seat. x

[pebbles]

I flew with Virgin in January. I took the seat option and was very happy to have it for the day flight out there cos it kept him in position adn didn't allow him to jump out (which he would have done if he had the option).

I tried it for the evening flight back however it doesn't recline so sleeping was never going to happen so i asked them to remove it and they did, no questions asked and literally took about 2 mins - i'm shocked that you are being told that this isn't possible.

If both flights are nighttime then i would say no however if you have to do a bit of day flying and your toddler is full of energy then i do really recommend it.

The position that he got himself into to sleep bizarrely was knees on the floor and then head on the seat!!! Luckily there was no turbulance but he slept 6 hrs without a peep. Maybe worth a try if you don't get anywhere with any other positions. I also took his pjs, grobag and teddy that he sleeps with every night so that i was able to get him changed and read him a book so he vaguely knew what it meant. it took a good few hours for him to finally fall asleep but i think it did help trying to get the situation as right as possible!!!

Good luck.