MilesBuzz! - Frequent Flyer Memberships For Children

Several months ago, in connection with Ozstamps' Mexicana/Hilton tip, I signed up the whole family (myself, Mrs. pete and two youngsters) for Mexicana Frequenta memberships. Although the impetus was the 4625-mile signup bonus and the prospects of the Hilton HHonors points conversion, I actually had been planning to book a Mexicana flight for the family. At any rate, I received a telephone call today from a Mexicana CS rep advising that children must be at least 12 years old in order to join Frecuenta (and in checking the Mexicana site I now see a footnote stating that this policy went into effect as of 10/26/00). Furthermore, flights for children under the age of 12 accrue no FF miles (and can not be credited to a parent's Frecuenta plan).

This does not seem right. Every revenue ticket should earn miles. With every other airline FF plan with which I have any experience, children may, and indeed are required to, have their own FF number. What is the policy of other airlines? What about other Star Alliance carriers?

cactuspete. Good point. Sorry to hear that is their rule? (Bet your kids are still getting 2000 HH points a Q tho. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif )

I always assumed paying pax occupying a seat (i.e. not lap infants) got points? The airlines i have had anything much to do with do that anyway. Maybe a note to MEX might get it "exempted"?

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~ Glen ~

I've been a member of many including United, Continetal and Northwest since I was two.

United still sends all my stuff to me as Master

Pete:

Not good. When exactly did you join -in other words, if prior to 26 October, will they consider your kids "grandfathered" into the program?


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Take a deep breath, and remember what's really important...

Does Mexicana provide discounted tickets for children under 12? If so, perhaps that's why they don't allow them to earn miles.

I've always considered it a pretty nice bonus that my son was able to fly on 75 percent of adult fare on UA internationally, but receive full mileage credit. Mexicana's policy of not providing miles to children flying on a paid ticket would cause me to fly another airline. Although perhaps it would be possible to fly Mexicana and have your child's miles credited to UA??

No Mininum Age Requirement http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
HP - America West
CO - Continental
WN - Southwest
and others?

Mileage credit requires a paid ticket. No miles or credits earned for a Lap Child (under 2 years of age) when no ticket has been purchased. A child under 2 years of age on a paid ticket does earn flight credit.

Ohhhhh . . . when I read this thread I sigh in pain at the 40,000 miles I flew to and from college, mostly on UA, that don't count toward the million mile qualification because I didn't think of joining at the time. My son (2) will join *some* club before his first flight and get an earlier start than I did!

Originally posted by MRLIMO:
No Mininum Age Requirement http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
HP - America West
CO - Continental
WN - Southwest
and others?


You can add DL to the list; my two sons (ages 2.5 and 5.5) have been members for the last six months.

My son has not yet reached his 3rd birthday and has already accumulated 19,000 miles with Northwest (incl Alaska Airlies travel) and 29,000 miles with United. Not all in one year so he doesn't have any Premier status but we're working on that. He'll earn another 6,354 NW miles when we take him to Kauai with us in February.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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Addicted to airline miles? Check out: The Airline Mileage Workshop (http://www.mileageworkshop.com)

MileageAddict .. does he use his rental car vouchers often? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

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~ Glen ~

SAS EuroBonus doesnt allow members under the age of 18 to participate. Why? I think there is something with the swedish law.

Oh, I should add that not all my son's mileage was accumulated from air travel. I have used his account number for MCi-Sprint sign up offers as well.

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Addicted to airline miles? Check out: The Airline Mileage Workshop (http://www.mileageworkshop.com)

Both my sons have their Northwest accounts. It does make agents look at them a bit differently when they see their numbers.

I know somebody whose son who was a Premier Executive at the age of 4... Now I think he's just a "lowly" Premier. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I do not think American has any minimum age requirements. I am EXP but my son is a PLAT who will be an EXP and is only 5 yrs old. I have an infant daughter and I am sure she will be a million miler before she is 10. (My son's account has hundreds of thousands of miles already just based on base miles and bonuses). My children are forced to be globetrotter's because of their parents and enjoy it along with the perks that come with it.

I do know that American limits membership in Admiral's club to those 18 and over and most affinity credit cards can only be issued to those 18 and over.

Besides American my children have memberships in most frequent flyer programs (where their age was explicitly stated in the application). They have accumulated miles in many.

British Air and many other international airlines limit membership in FF programs (esp at elite levels) to those 18 and over. I find that with his status my son can take an adult with him to any OneWorld Biz lounge but cannot go by himself directly. Star seems to be slightly more of a problem.

My daughter has a TWA account, and already accumlated enough miles for an itnernational flight in the past summer (she is 8). She has a FF account on any airline that we have used. I have never heard of an airline that will not allow children (as long as they are paying) to accumlate miles!

My three daughters (aged 10, 12, 14) are all Silver Perferred on US Airways.

Originally posted by enjoystravel:

British Air and many other international airlines limit membership in FF programs (esp at elite levels) to those 18 and over. I find that with his status my son can take an adult with him to any OneWorld Biz lounge but cannot go by himself directly. Star seems to be slightly more of a problem.

BA allows people under 18 to accrue mileage and also obtain elite status. However, they cannot use the lounge facilities.

My son has belonged to the BA Executive Club since he was two. He's now six. They won't issue him a membership card in case he decides to try to storm the lounges solo, but he has his own discrete number and merrily feeds our Household Account. He's also earned himself free travel on Northwest... sometimes the agents do a double-take when he produces his "Master Bxxxxx..." WorldPerks card, but he's being brought up within the system.

Starting January 1st TG will allow children between 2-12 to accrue miles on Royal Orchid. Children will also receive the special bonus of 2500miles after flying TG for the first time.

Originally posted by bagold:
BA allows people under 18 to accrue mileage and also obtain elite status. However, they cannot use the lounge facilities.

My 15 yr-old brother wanted to sign up with the UK Exec Club to earn about 80,000 miles on a RTW ticket (which would have also brought him BA silver status = OW sapphire).
He was not allowed to sign up. Perhaps yet another example of the utter ridiculousness of the UK Exec Club compared with the US scheme??
Incidentally, AAdvantage permitted enrolment and he is Platinum with them.

My ten year old is an AA Platinum and joins me on all our mileage runs as part of her home-school education so Mom can stay home with the new twins. We plan to do a RTW next year for EXP status.

Just an update to my original post - - Mexicana now advises that whereas children previously were permitted to have Frecuenta memberships, they could not earn FF miles/kms until they turned 12. I don't know what would be the point of belonging to a FF plan if you could not earn miles. Thet also refused to elaborate on the reasoning behind this policy.

While making an AS reservation yesterday on the MVP Gold line, the agent mentioned that she had just made a reservation for a four-year-old MVP Gold member. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif His mom was also MVP Gold.

cactuspete: Sign your child up for United Mileage Plus and have your child's miles on Mexicana post there. My son's SAS flights have always posted fine to United even though, as I read here, SAS will not permit children to earn miles.

Yes, I suppose that I could sign the kids up for United accounts, but we don't typically fly United, and I was hoping to take advantage of the Mexicana enrollment and internet bonuses.

At the end of the day, the bonuses won't make a huge difference.

AC certainly takes Aéroplan members under 12. Rumour has it that the youngest Super Élite is 7.

Delta allows children in its Sky Miles program. My daughter is 5 and has been Silver Medallion for several years now. I also have a Delta Amex card number in her name so that she can get the 1000 mile booking bonus for web reservations.

Both of my boys are DL, NW, US and AA. Both had their first paid flight at less than two months of age and are now 4 1/2 and 20 months. No lap sitters with these two and when I worked for the government they got their own tix on my travel orders. My cousins two boys in VA Beach are also seasoned veteran FF's and have done the FRA-ATL run on DL more times than she can count.

when I worked for the government they got their own tix on my travel orders.

spartacus: What does this mean? Were you using your travel orders to buy your kids government fare tix?

Originally posted by ohioview:
Delta allows children in its Sky Miles program. My daughter is 5 and has been Silver Medallion for several years now. I also have a Delta Amex card number in her name so that she can get the 1000 mile booking bonus for web reservations.

How is that possible? I know that American Express requires cardholders to be 18, regardless of the age of the accountholders or primary/master cardholder.

I am not sure if this is the case here, but some credit card companies allow additional cardholders to be anyone you name (since you take all the responsibilities for the charges). You can nominate foreign citizens, minors, etc. though I am not sure if by US law they can offer credit cards to US minors.

My son is now 7, and had his first FF membership at age 1. He is a member with Delta, American, Continental, NW, TWA, EVA, and Thai. Eva started their children's program last summer. Thai on January 1. Frustratingly, he lost his initial Thai miles because the check-in agent didn't know they had started the program. I asked a customer service agent to enter his number on arrival at Chiang Mai, but still no miles...Also...I lost the boarding pass and receipt...Kick Me.

John

dbaker wrote:
I know that American Express requires cardholders to be 18, regardless of the age of the accountholders or primary/master cardholder.

Not so. If the primary card holder is willing to be responsible for the bills, he can add whoever he wants regardless of age. My son, 12, has had an Optima card for a couple of years now.

Originally posted by clouds2cloud:
I am not sure if this is the case here, but some credit card companies allow additional cardholders to be anyone you name (since you take all the responsibilities for the charges). You can nominate foreign citizens, minors, etc. though I am not sure if by US law they can offer credit cards to US minors.

I've had no problem with that using Visa and Mastercard, but American Express stricly prohibits this.

Originally posted by letiole:
dbaker wrote:
Not so. If the primary card holder is willing to be responsible for the bills, he can add whoever he wants regardless of age. My son, 12, has had an Optima card for a couple of years now.


Didn't they ask for his birthdate and SS# when you asked for the additional card? For their Optima and charge cards, they specifically say that you can acquire Additional Cards for qualified individuals age 18 and over.

I've been working on an Amex Membership Rewards project. I was trying the other day to get children under 18 Amex Rewards Plus Gold cards and was told they needed to be 18. Also, I just tried to open a Virgin Atlantic Flyer Club account for a child on the web and read that one must be 13 years old. I called Virgin Atlantic and was told that an account could not be opened until a child is at least 12. Numerous frequent flyer accounts are held by the children on domestic carriers. Makes you think twice about which airline I throw dollars to. I know I can use Midwest Express account numbers on Virgin, but that was not my goal.

Didn't they ask for his birthdate and SS# when you asked for the additional card?

Interesting to hear that the rules prohibit this because we had no problem signing him up. Could it be a change? As I mentioned, he's had it for about two years. I did give the clerk his SS and birth date and the card in his name arrived about 10 days later.

Korean Air will give miles to kids, but only at half the going rate. Their SkyPass cards identify them as Junior members. I'm not thrilled about this, but I do like Korean's Family Plan program (formerly Inkko) that allows family members to pool mileage.

American Express is not uniform in enforcement of it's rules. My 7 yr old daughter (who is Delta GM) got an AMEX gold card with no problems, but my one year old son (Delta silver) could not.

BTW, when I book a flight for the whole family on Delta's website and pay all at once with one credit card, all travelling members get the 1000 mile bonus. Also, only the passenger's last name needs to match the credit card holders to buy on their website so children never really need their own card.

I always want my son on my record, so I don't use his card for buying airline tickets and yes, he does still get the online booking bonus. A credit card in a child's name is very useful though for achieving purchase-based promotions, such as the recent NW promo. He also uses it when he's at camp.

My 15 yr old has secondary cards on Citibank visa, mc, and AMEX. Actually, I don't recall that they asked about birthdate. So, maybe they don't allow it, but it never came up, but as you all said, since I am responsible for payment, it is my problem, not theirs.
When booking web-fares, an adult could pay for the ticket with their own card, and your child would still get the web-bonus - it wouldn't have to be paid with the flyer's card. I have booked the family at AA, on one card and each one got the online booking bonus.

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DtG

Actually, I just found out that it's not always true that children or other companions booked on the same record will receive the online booking bonus. While this has been the case for me on UA (and apparently for others on AA), my latest CO newsletter says:

"The bonus of 1,000 miles for booking flights at continental.com only applies to one person per reservation. The first OnePass number listed in the reservation receives the bonus."

US didn't ask for age when I signed up my 3 year old and 11 month old last month. Both got miles and the online bonus for a trip last week that was on a single itinerary under my wife's name and on my credit card.

Last year my son (then 16 yrs) went overseas with a youth group. I had no intentions of giving him my credit card with high dollar limits and I did my research. The ONLY card that I could find that will let a teenager (I don't remember it if was 15 or 16 min at the time) have a card in THEIR name with me cosigning (and a very low limit - his was 300.00) was the capital one Visa card. As pointed out above, I could have added him as an authorized USER to the others.

My 2 daughters (ages 11 & 13) have both been Silver or Gold Elite with CO since age 3. (They have accumulated over 500,000 miles each!) They have always paid full adult int'l fares to be eligible for upgrades, but have never been denied miles on any airline/flt. It doesn't really make sense (about the upgrades) because child's FC is also discounted, so why not upgrade a discounted Y tkt? Have never been able to secure them an AX card (all offers state that you must be 18) but AX has a new teen card (secured) my oldest has. It would certainly make me feel better to have AX cards for them, esp on int'l trips.. How did you all get around that rule??

Have scoured FT for this answer with no luck:

I see in this thread a few people have said basically: "Lap children with NO ticket do not get miles, but lap children with their own ticket DO get miles."

Does this mean that an infant traveling on a 10% infant lap fare will get full miles? On what airlines?

Thanks!

No, no one has said that. On Int'l flights there is NO option to pay or not. It's 10% for a lap child and you get no miles. Plain and simple (yes I am sure that someone will post that they did, airlines do occasionally make mistakes). If you buy your infant a CHILD fare (which generally is supposed to be for children 2-12) which normally costs apx. 66% of the adultfare (although may on occasion be anywhere from 50-75% of the adult fare), you kid DOES get miles.

While we were living in Asia, Little Miss Redbeard (10 yo at the time) was flying full adult fares so she could get upgrades and miles. We didn't purchase child fares so we could get upgraded as a family.

My 3-year-old daughter is going to fly with me on Korean Air.
I joined her in the KE Skypass program.
Skypass miles does not expire and can be combined with miles of
family members.
But I found that they will only give 75% of the actual miles
on the child fares.

I wonder whether other skyteam airlines would give the same miles
as the adults would get.

Another problem: I am a CO sliver, moved to Toronto area recently.
Is it a good idea to have CO one pass for her instead of KE skypass?

My 3-year-old daughter is going to fly with me on Korean Air.
I joined her in the KE Skypass program.
Skypass miles does not expire and can be combined with miles of
family members.
But I found that they will only give 75% of the actual miles
on the child fares.

I wonder whether other skyteam airlines would give the same miles
as the adults would get.

Another problem: I am a CO sliver, moved to Toronto area recently.
Is it a good idea to have CO one pass for her instead of KE skypass?

Miles are based on the fare class. Most skyteam airlines give 100% or more to all fare classes, but YMMWV. As far as what program to enroll your daughter in, it depends on what your future plans are. Is she going to be flying KE again and often? If so, the the KE FFP is fine. If you expect her to be traveling with you in the future on multiple airlines, I would have her join CO OP with you.

Good Luck!:)

Wow - I had no idea that children could be enrolled in FF plans. Just assumed the minimum age was 18. Guess I need to get my two kids enrolled in some plans. :)