My wife and I are planning to go to Germany over the summer with our 1 year old, and it looks like we will have enough points for business or even first class tickets. I was looking at availability and what it would cost for the infant in arms portion of the ticket. One flight I looked at was $1,100 for just the infant in arms portion of a ticket in August. Now I know flights are more expensive in the summer and I have never been in business class, much less paid for a ticket there, but I'm assuming that the tickets are generally not $11,000 (infant ticket being 10% of full fair at time of booking per United web page).
It would seem like it is possible that the best approach to getting a trip with an infant in arms is to get the award tickets as early as they are available, but wait to ticket the infant until closer in when prices generally dip (30 - 90 days out?) Am I on the right track with that approach?
These tickets were on United. Do any of their partners have different terms that may lead to a less expensive infant ticket? We recently got our first ever award tickets on Delta (*shiver* booking Delta as first ever award is trial by fire for sure!) and I think their terms are a little different, something like the average of the full fare ticket.
I might as well ask this since I'm sure someone will give their opinion on it anyway: what is the general consensus on getting award business or first class tickets and bringing infants up front? Not that I would change my plans, but it might be helpful to know if I'm going to get the death stare from everyone when I walk on the plane with the kid! (I guess it's all relative because that happens in coach as well anyway)