My niece was traveling back to England on USAirways a few days ago and when she asked about a first-class upgrade for which she was willing to pay (had her credit card out and ready to go) the ticket agent at the airport refused to sell her the upgrade. The reason? My niece was traveling with a child (two years old). The mother and child travel quite a bit on that route (they're stationed in England, father is in Afghanistan right now), and the kid is pretty well-behaved (although she has her moments, the few times I've traveled with them, the kid was better behaved than some older kids who routinely travel FC). The TA refused to even discuss it, although she did say that seats were available.

My niece was pretty upset by it, but didn't press it because the TA was being very rude and brusque.

Can USAirways do this? I don't think it even got to the point about whether or not they could buy a second seat for the kid. It was just "No, we won't sell you an upgrade, case closed."

I questioned them pretty closely about it, and they were just as puzzled as I. I guess they're going to pursue an answer about this, but I wonder if anybody here has ever heard of this policy?

NO, I don't want to hear about whether or not kids belong in first class -- that's not the issue. The issue is, the kid was ready to BUY an upgraded seat (possibly two), and the TA said, no way, no how because my niece was traveling with a child. They are frequent fliers on USAirways and UAL, but I'm not sure if she's 1P or 2P or higher.

Seems kind of cheesy to me to have seats available for sale, but refuse to sell one to someone for having a child.