Eleonora’s First Flight in Business Class of course !

 

When Eleonora was four, free from the stroller and happy to eat any type of food, I decided to bring her abroad. Eleonora first flight was Milan – London in springtime.

I lived in Canterbury for a while and this small university and international town is still in my heart.

So I decided to bring Eleonora to Canterbury, visiting friends and surrounding by bus. I never driven in UK even when I lived here, too scary for me, however public transportation in Kent is good and I have friends there, who are happy to bring me around if needed.

Eleonora and I flew into London Heathrow with British Airways. At that time I was travelling a lot especially in US so I had a lot of miles which allowed us to have free tickets and a lucky upgrade in Business class from Milan, but most important, due to my Silver Status, I could use the BA lounges and bring Eleonora with me.

Of course, for a such short flight (2hrs and half) business class can be expensive but the possibility to take advantages from the lounge areas especially the one in Heathrow makes the difference.

Unfortunately, our flight was delayed by two hours in Milan so it was good for us to stay in a comfortable lounge area spacious enough for everybody, with food and snacks. Eleonora drunk at least three fruit juices and tried all the snacks, biscuits, fries, chocolate bars and so on, while I had small sandwiches, a glass of white wine to relax  and a coffee to stay awake. There are newspapers and magazines to pass time and a TV as well, luckily enough we found a family travelling with three kids, one had the same age of Eleonora and a video player so they enjoyed a cartoon movie and it was time for us to take the plane.

 

BA provides a very nice kid package, a small backpack with a magazine, colors and stickers is in English of course so good timing for Eleonora to start to familiarize with it. This took Eleonora busy for a while, along with all the questions she had about the takeoff and landing and all the strange noises. She tried everything the lights, the fan, the deck and the table. In Business Class, BA offered us a proper meal with small pizzas as appetizer and a choice between meal, fish and pasta for the main.

The crew gave Eleonora a passport to be stamped after the landing by the pilot, and what surprised me a lot, was that the pilot a nice lady, invited us, once landed, in the cabin and we could see the incredible aircraft’s control panel, she also explained a couple of things about the lights starting to flash and put the stamp on Eleonora’s passport what amazing first flight for Eleonora.

The return experience was amazing too especially for the BA lounge in London, travelling in business allow you to use the “Fast Track” which is a great deal in a such big airport as Heatrow, where the level of the security procedures increased and sometimes this can be difficult to manage if you are travelling alone with children.

The lounge instead is WOW a big place facing the runways where you can enjoy fresh food cooked for you, an open bar, ton of desserts, coffee machines and so on. Toilets as well are nice with fine product and the hand cream that I liked a lot. There is also a kids area closed with transparent glasses full of toys for the different ages, a TV and poufs to relax, personally I asked to Eleonora to stay with me as this lounge is so big that I wanted always to have an eyes contact with her.

Do you want to know more about my experiences with the airline companies?, which is the best one to travel with children? Just contact me at: info@travelatbreakfast.com

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