BigLar

Putting together a family reunion trip. One pair has a child that will just be at the end of her second year at the time of the flight.

What are the rules for "lap children" on international flights? Does AA even have such a category? I'd like to save the cost of a ticket if I can.

nako

http://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_U...nTraveling.jsp

(The charge referred to for infants on international flights is 10 percent of a full-fare ticket.)

Mike

BigLar

Yeah, thanks, Mike.

I found it myself. Had a problem searching FT because "lap" is only 3 letters. Don't know why I didn't think of searching aa.com first.

At least we're done before u-no-who can chime in and ask, "Done a search?"

KBMIFlyer

If the child is "just before" his/her second birthday, make sure you have proof of age. Either a passport or a birth certificate. I had that issue with my son when we flew with him once.

I hope it is a short international flight. Holding an almost 2year old on a lap for a long flight in coach doesn't sound like much fun.

FWAAA

I can't imagine why someone would want to hold a nearly two year old toddler on their lap for an entire international flight (never mind the slight safety risk).

oneant

I don't know why anyone would want to TRAVEL with a nearly two year old todler, period.

BenjaminNYC

So you must support children on a lap in the car, too, right? I mean, if it's safe to have your child on your lap at 600 mph in the air, it MUST be safe in the car on the ground.

Not to mention the disruption to other passengers.

I believe it's very selfish and terribly dangerous to have a lap child; I can't believe any caring parent would do it.

SAT Lawyer

Well, this caring parent has taken his infant son on five trips as a lap child and would do it again without thinking twice. As virtually any parent of an infant or toddler knows, it is darn near impossible to keep them happily seated. So you can pay for a seat, but won't get much use out of it to show for your outlay of cash. Or, if you do, you will likely have a irascible and, accordingly, noisy child. As for the safety issue, it is really overblown. How many lap children do you know of who have been killed in the history of aviation in an otherwise survivable accident/incident? I haven't heard of even one. And even a lap child can be secured with a device like the Baby B'Air.

s80dude

I agree.... they gave us some info at Recurrent Training a few years ago that basically said in impact situations, the G-force would make it impossible for someone to hold on to their child.

SAT Lawyer

I think that's almost certainly true (assuming the lap child is not otherwise secured with a harness-style device like the Baby B'Air).

But as it pertains to the safety of passengers other than the child, is it not also true of personal items and would-be projectiles like laptop computers?

And how do you define "impact"? A collision involving an airplane at taxiing speed might present the very rare instance where securing a child could pay safety dividends, but a mid-air collision or any sort of crash where the plane was at airspeed prior to the impact undoubtedly would not except in the one-in-a-trillion miracle situation.

oneant

You can't compare travel by air with travel by car. I'm sure you've checked the statistics out before, but risk is VERY high when travelling by car as opposed to by commercial air. I think the statistics even show that modern air travel is safer than sitting in your living room.

FWAAA

Very true.

Still, once a human being celebrates their second birthday, they are legally required to fasten their seat belt and sit in their own seat whenever the pilot says so. Safety first, ya know.

Hard to imagine that the risks of turbulence and low-speed ground incidents are any less for those not yet two years old, yet saving a few dollars on an international trip (lap kids pay all taxes in addition to 10% of fare, IIRC) wins out.

I found that buying coach tickets and upgrading them or redeeming J tickets worked for me on long-haul international flights. Much more comfort - as my spouse and I were able to eat and sleep without holding our daughters for 8, 10 even 12 hours or more. And since they had to have their own seats once they turned two, the miles and status they accumulated before they turned two certainly helps for that inevitable travel ages 2-18. Lap child tickets earn nothing.

SAT Lawyer: I buckled my infant daughters into their car seats for plenty of flight hours prior to their second birthday with nary a complaint by them (cruel and unusual, I know). Probably 10 times that many hours in their car seats in the car or minivan. Of course, your experience is probably different, in large part because you mentioned your infant son. Boys (IME) generally don't take hours of sitting in car seats as well as do girls.

BenjaminNYC

So I guess I don't need my seatbelt on a plane? I mean, if it's safe enough for an infant to go without a seatbelt, it must be safe enough for me, right? Or it must just be more acceptable to risk the lives of infants, right? So long as mommy is buckled in, we don't need to worry about junior!

:ROLLEYES:

SAT Lawyer

In theory, it would be best if every airline passenger was strapped in 100 percent of the time with a five-point harness. In practice, the wisdom of traveling with a child on one's lap comes down to a cost-benefit analysis, like virtually every other decision we human beings make.

I'm sure you don't stay seated and strapped in at all times on your many flights. Surely you get up to stretch your legs, visit the galley, and go to the bathroom? On how many of your flights did the aforementioned activities prove calamitous? On how many of your flights have you seen anyone -- child or adult -- suffer any adverse consequences from not being seat-belted?

If you want to pay for an extra seat that may or may not get optimal usage for your children (assuming you have any), that's fine. But there is no need to castigate others who would make a different choice. If your concern is not for the well-being of a kid not of your own making, but rather for the possibility that such a kid will become a projectile if not assigned his or her own seat, then maybe you should start your crusade by demanding that laptops and the like remain seated and belted at all times, in a seat paid for by their owner, of course. And if your real concern is a general aversion to children on airplanes, then you have my sympathy, but no need to cloak it in a shroud of phony concern for the safety of the offspring of strangers.

nickvora

To be honest BenjaminNYC - I don't think it's a good idea for an infant to be "lap child" on a flight (regardless of length). However, I am amazed at the fact that there's no requirement for a safety device (such as an FAA approved car seat) once the child is 2. Have you seen a 2 year old wearing one of those lap belts? They're beyond useless - my arms are more "supportive" - the child would slide thru the bottom of that lap belt in a fraction of a second - I have no doubt that they would be useless in an emergency... Hence why I would ensure that my child was in a booster/safety seat until they're older and more secure in the seat.

However, to the OP's question, just make sure that the child doesn't turn 2 during the journey (i.e. the return occurs prior to the 2nd birthday) - otherwise per the rules the child would require a child ticket for that leg.