The following is based on our experiences with two month old twin boys flying USA to Europe. (Not BA)...
>we will be travelling to australia soon with a 4month old and I
> would like some help in answering some q's from any BA cabin
> crew. We have a bassinet booked in WTP so I presume that
> will be at a bulkhead?
Don't assume there will be a bassinet on the plane even if you book one! We checked at every stage (booking, check-in desk, at the gate etc). Each time we were told yes there will be bassinets on the plane. Upon boarding the cabin crew told us that there were no bassinets on that plane and that in any case they could not even be fitted our particular bulkhead seat. Thanks to good planning we had taken the precaution of bringing our child carriers with us - the sort that clip into a base to form a rear facing car seat. We checked-in the bases and we used the carriers to transport the babies through the airport. It was also lucky that there were enough empty seats into which we could strap them. If you decide to take one of these carriers see if you can find the user guide so you an prove it's FAA/CAA approved. Otherwise they might just say you can't use it and that it has to go in the hold.
If you can afford it book an extra seat for the baby. If the flight is full they might decide you have to put the car seat in the hold and carry the baby.
Perhaps someone here can tell us a secret way to find out if a flight has empty seats in advance?
> Is someone 'designated' to assist or is it anyone in the cabin?
The crew on our long haul flight were helpful but we were well prepared so they didn't have to do much for us.
>What brand of water is carried as we can't decide whether to
> take ready-made formula or powder, bottle feeding obviously!
I would take enough water, bottles and the small sachets of powder to last the flight. (I would recommend taking the small cartons of ready mix instead of powder but can you open them without sissors?). Perhaps also take a jug to stand the bottle in and ask the crew to fill it with hot water. Our two were happy enough to drink milk that was room temp or had been held next to our skin between feeds. This meant we didn't need to wait with screaming baby while the crew heated bottles of milk.
>If we go the powder route, should we bring our own water or is
>there plenty available on board? Is there steam sterilizing
> facilities or would our own chemical solution be a better plan?
We would recommend taking enough clean bottles with you so you don't need to bother cleaning anything on the flight. At that age they only need to be the small ones.
> Can bottles be heated? Can bottles be refridgerated? Any
> other helpful hints appreciated!
The good news is that the vibration seems to help them sleep. We got our first decent nights sleep in 2 months on our first flight.
Have a good one.
Colin
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