Heathrow & Pushchair on BA

[Paul Weaver]

Indeed. I've done about 55 flights on Ba this year, including 12 with a baby and pushchair. 

At check in they'll add a baggage tag to your chair, and you just push it though security. At boarding they call you first and you leave the chair by the plane. At most airports you can have it delivered back to the plane on landing. 

However with a <12 month old we found it easier to leave the chair at check in and carry the scamp in a sling. 

For check in, I leave things quite late, but then I fly several times a month ad cant afford to waste the time. Leave a little longer for security - especially if you're taking baby liquids, and unexpected nappy changes. 

Security at heathrow can be a pain, there's no way to predict it. Even so, 1h30 should be fine. But I'd aim to get to heathrow about 2 hours just to be sure as you don't want to be stressing, you dont know the airport, and the tube can always get held up. I believe there's a kiddie play area in t5, somewhere near gate 7 once you get through.

I think you get 1 bag each, up to 23kg, plus 1 bag for the baby, plus a pushchair, plus a car seat, plus 1 piece of had luggage each, plus 1 for the baby, plus 1 "personal item" (handbag, laptop bag etc) each.

 I'm not sure how a two-piece travel system works as far as how many bags it takes - as a frequent flyer, 2 parents and baby get more bags than we can fit in the car, they used two tags for our chair/wheels combo. We took both through security. 

If you're on a long haul flight, it will probably go from "B" or "C" gates, which invokes a train ride after security. Certainly keep the pushchair with you in that case. 

By best Ba flight was exiting the taxi at 0955, and sitting down on the plane at 1002 for a 1005 departure. That was at Manchester, and I was very lucky.

On 8 Jul 2013, at 16:41, "Kieren Diment" <diment at gmail.com> wrote:

> A pushchair is handled in essentially the same way as a wheelchair in my experience.  You'll probably be able to get it to the aircraft door or steps before stowing it.
> 
> On 08/07/2013, at 4:21 PM, Smylers wrote:
> 
>> Hello there. We've just booked a flight and have a couple of questions
>> about it, which I was wondering if anybody who's flown from Heathrow
>> terminal 5 or travelled with a pushchair on BA before will be able to
>> help with.
>> 
>> How long do we need to allow for getting through terminal 5? We don't
>> want to set our alarms unnecessarily early and have to fill time at the
>> airport, but obviously we don't want to miss our flight either.
>> 
>> The booking information says that we need to drop bags off by 45 minutes
>> before departure and have entered security at least 35 minutes before
>> departure. Any guidance for translating this into 'time by which we need
>> our Tube to have arrived at the platform' gratefully received. We'll
>> have bags to drop off, and ideally will be avoiding stairs and
>> escalators.
>> 
>> Our other question is about flying with buggies, especially with BA. The
>> flight information says our baby can take "one fully collapsible
>> pushchair (stroller)" in addition to his checked luggage allowance. Does
>> this mean the pushchair gets handed in with the checked luggage, and we
>> have to carry him through security and the gate without?
>> 
>> Also, any idea if "fully collapsible" means something different from
>> "collapsible" to BA -- does our buggy have to be particularly small when
>> folded in order to be allowed on at all?
>> 
>> Thanks for any advice.
>> 
>> Smylers
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>