Car seat confusion

Hello everyone,

I was wondering whether anyone can clarify the situation regarding the use of child car seats in Premium Economy.

Virgin's website appears to be quite clear on the point, that car seats cannot be used in either Premium Economy or Upper Class, due to the presence of airbags. http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/tr ... ldren.html

However, I have recently spoken to two Virgin representatives on the 'phone, who have told me that car seats can be used in Premium Economy, at least where the particular seat is not impacted by the onboard airbags.

I am due to fly LGW-MCO next week on a 747-400 with my 7 month old son. Does anyone know what the correct position is regarding the use of car seats in Premium Economy? I'd rather not get to the airport, or onboard, only to find that our car seat cannot be used and will have to be put in the hold, where I fear it may be damaged.

As a secondary point, does anyone know when Virgin stopped providing special infant seats onboard? When we booked our tickets, we booked an extra seat on the understanding that our baby would be able to use one of these seats.

Many thanks for your help.

James

The wording is a tad unclear on the page you linked:

As all of our Upper Class suites and the Premium Economy seats on many of our aircraft have airbags you will be unable to use your own car seats.

To me, that reads all UC suites have airbags, and the PE seats on some aircraft have airbags. But yes, this does seem like a confusing one. No experience of this myself, hopefully someone else has an answer for you!

Every Upper Class suite has an airbag seatbelt for certain - they have to due to the angle of the seat & the fact you would be thrown into the seat dividing wall in a crash.

In Premium Economy (& possibly Economy too) I thought that only the bulkhead row seats had airbag seatbelts. There is no obvious reason why any other rows might need them (& they are expensive too).

I did a quick Google image search on the PE seats and most of the pictures I found are publicity shots, where the seatbelt is either completely missing, or hidden my a blanket & pillow. Did find a couple of pics with the seatbelt showing and they were normal non-airbag seatbelts.

Only the A330 had airbag seat belts in premium. You will be on a 747 to mco so should be fine. As long as car seat had the appropriate labels required by CAA. The virgin on board child seats were removed end of last year