After the fact airplane travel question with DC for travel experts!

[steph2003]

We flew for the 1st time with DS over T-day holiday. It was a regional jet with a 2 & 2 seat configuration & no first class. Had there been first class with my DH's frequent travels he has status to upgrade - but instead we booked the bulk head/front row seats both ways. Thursday AM we board with DS (we did not buy him a seat) & the flight attendant tells us we cannot sit in the front row with a lap baby. Does not give reason & us being new to the flying with baby scene did not question it.

Fast forward to the weekend - my DH calls his chairmen preferred line to confirm our seats on the flight back & ask about the restrictions with a lap baby in the bulk head seats. Customer service rep says no problems, most people book these seats for extra room. We check in Sunday AM & again ask the counter ticket agent if we would have problems - again, no reason why you can't have a lap baby there. Well, you can probably see where I'm going with this - board plane & a different flight attendant this time around tells us we have to switch seats & we are not allowed to sit there with a lap baby! Needless to say my DH was not very nice this time around about the situation.

So I'm confused - anyone know why a lap baby would not be allowed in the front row? The only reason I can think of is in this case being a regional jet/no first class they consider that row to be an emergency exit situation & the people sitting there need to be able bodied. If that is the case fine....but they should not have let us book those seats in the first place (we told them upon booking we'd have a lap baby) Or was it a case of flight attendants not knowing what they were talking about?!

[usfrph]

I'm guessing it's because the bulk row has the emergency exit.
I think on the larger planes (intl flights), you can sit on the bulk head if you're in the middle section.

[egoldber]

It must be because the regional jets consider the first row an exit row. Since both sets of FAs told you the same thing, its probably a rule specific to these jets. And it does not surprise me in the least that the phone CS reps have no clue about this. They are extremely unknowledgeable the actual rules for where children can sit. My DH is a super frequent flier as well and the phone reps have numerous times put us in an exit row as a "perk" for DH.

[Momof3Labs]

I've heard that some rows don't have an extra oxygen mask (for a lap baby), and maybe that's the case on the regional jets. When I'm told something like this, I usually respond that I have no problem with what they are asking, but would be interested to know why that is the case (just for future reference).

[steph2003]

Lori -
I think I'm going to call the airline & tell them what happened (not complain) like you said to clarify for future reference. I guess we were so surprised the 1st time around we didn't question & the 2nd time, well I'm embarrassed to say my DH got a bit snippy & I was more into getting him to just move already all the while trying to control my little monkey.