Best business class for two adults and an infant?

At risk of having something thrown at me - I can see why it's considered pretty bad form to do this. There's also a huge difference between a shorter 6-8hr flight (SE Asia) vs all the way to Europe/New York ~18-20hrs . You are pretty much guaranteed there will be several melt downs on those longer flights by a baby/toddler which will no doubt cause a *lot* of discomfort to others (both noise and dare I say nappy smells).

Unless there's some pretty compelling reason to be doing these long flights (ie. relative on their deathbed who wants to meet the baby, you are moving/starting a new life on other side of world) - you really should think twice about it. Personally, we've taken our baby/toddler on biz class several times - but never more than ~7 hrs (and only after she was sleeping for 12 hrs and guaranteed to be asleep for majority of flight). Out of all the flights we had only one small meltdown (just after takeoff, lasting about 15 minutes) - but we definitely felt really bad/guilty about it and apologized profusely to others who were (rightfully) annoyed at us.

Re comments about economy class - would think this would be even more distressing for others given the already massively cramped conditions. Having someone else with a 'lap infant' mere centimeters from you for a long flight would be absolutely the worst thing possible.

David / Sid. I know you guys are always looking at ways to improve what is already a great site. May I suggest that you focus a great deal more on private aviation. Because there are clearly a whole bunch of people who need a cabin to themselves, given some of the comments here. And as an aside I guess the product reviews would be great fun for you guys!!

We recently did BA12 from Singapore to London with our two year old toddler. We chose the first row middle seats on the upper deck. We weren't right next to each other but it meant we had direct aisle access and nobody had to climb over us in that weird setup they have. The rear facing passenger between us exited behind us. It worked really well and the benefit of those seats upstairs was that the two lavatories at the front of the cabin are huge which made it easy to change nappies or have our toddler sitting at one part while I was using the lav. He slept for eight hours with me then we both had breakfast together with him sitting on the ottoman they use as part of the lie flat bed. My wife then took over the duties. The BA service was almost non existent and the suite is pretty clunky with nowhere to conveniently put anything but it worked well for us. I've always thought that maybe the Emirates 380 business seats that are together with a bassinet would be a good option too but I have no experience with that.

We have used the Qantas and Emirates business class when our toddler was 18 months and that was fine. At three and six months we had our toddler in business on Jetstar and he slept all the flight in the bassinet so if you book flights at their natural sleep times they will probably just sleep in the bassinet the whole flight.

Oh and just to really annoy Greg and Joe, we had our toddler in First on Emirates the other day and it was fan-bloody-tastic. Heaps of room, great service and he slept most of the way because he was tired of our travels. And no he is not an entitled little brat. He realistically won't remember any of the trips he has had to date. I hoard credit card points and we do it because it means we can stay comfortable. He is also a great little traveller. If he wasn't we wouldn't put ourselves through the bother of travelling with him. Having said that I think our next trip will be driving to the beach as he is just starting to move around too much.

Speaking of the two entitled brats on this thread. Grow up. People are allowed to travel with their children. When you buy a seat on a plane you get a hard and a soft product in your little area of the aircraft. At no point does an airline sell you silence. If they did they wouldn't make any announcements. I think you have forgotten how annoying adults can be. On our flight from SIN to LHR before we departed a d**k passenger in business got into an argument with a flight attendant because the passenger was misbehaving and caused more disturbance at that moment than our toddler did for the whole flight. Not to mention other passengers misbehaving on the flight.

To the OP enjoy your flight and the space that business will give you. Be strategic with your flight times and have a night in a hotel along the way if you think you need to. We took three daytime flights at about seven hours each to get from London to Brisbane as that is about all we can tolerate now. If your baby starts crying you can always go into the galley beyond the curtain. From our experience the service on Emirates is much better than Qantas and they really look after you.

Thanks everyone for your awesome suggestions!!! I really appreciate it!

My wife and I will by flying QF in F to LAX with our then to be almost 7 month old in December. I've managed to select 5A which is the bassinet seat. I've selected 1A for myself as 2-4A is already taken. We fly back via BNE in QF J on the 787 and I've selected 10E/F with the bassinet. Also in between we'll by flying LAX-JFK return in AA J on their 3 class A320. Not sure if these planes have bassinets available?

We've just flown to NZ and back in Y and she was great on both 3 hour flights. Slept right through so fingers crossed we get similar behavior for the upcoming long haul treks.

Hi we traveled in J with SQ last December to London with 20 month old in a bassinet seat. Ruby slept on the 1st leg to Singapore and 2nd leg to London. Having the bassinet was so good for sleeping but we found on the new A380 a bit squashy on the 2 seater. We had no complaints about travelling with an infant on SQ in J Class. Ruby has been travelling since she was 6 weeks old and never a complaint from any other travelers in fact we had pax saying we didnt even know there was an infant sitting near us. I think there was more noise from snoring than babies. Also went First Class on BA to New York and London no problems with them either. But would recommend a bassinet and take you infants favorite blanket. Cabin Crew were great also.