Originally Posted by
ashill
You can either have the infant fly as a lap infant for free and hope for an empty seat next to you to put the car seat in or pay the child fare (which is typically the same as the adult fare but is 75% of the adult fare plus 100% of the taxes and fees on some long haul itineraries paid with cash) and be "guaranteed" a seat (scare quotes only because seats are never technically guaranteed as the airline can involuntarily deny you boarding for a variety of reasons that apply to everyone). Depends on the value you place on the more comfortable experience and marginally better safety of having the child in the car seat (marginally because an accident is so unlikely in commercial aviation -- the child is much safer in a car seat if there is an accident or sudden, strong turbulence, but is still safer unrestrained on a plane than in a car seat in a car overall given the probabilities) compared to the cost of the ticket.
Personally, we usually pay nothing, fly the baby as a lap infant, and hope for an empty seat next to us, of course being fully willing to have her on the lap if there isn't an empty seat. We have pretty good success getting an empty seat through a combination of monitoring the seat map and politely asking the gate agent. Note that Alaska Airlines automatically places a block on an empty seat next to a lap infant, so if Alaska is an option, I fly them. We also choose two seats out of three in some of the least desirable parts of the plane (ie towards the back), figuring the odds are better than the third seat will remain unassigned there than towards the front.
With load factors in excess of 80%, though, if you're not comfortable having your child fly without a seat of his/her own, pay the full fare to buy a seat.
Indeed, certainly do not pay BA's 10% for a lap infant; that is only necessary on international itineraries and serves no purpose at all on a domestic US ticket. (Dunno about domestic UK; perhaps they do require lap infants to be ticketed with the 10% charge and thus charge the same fee for all domestic tickets?)
She hasn't given birth yet, but we will have to book this ticket before we have taken a flight with her for the first time. We just assume that it will be easier to have a seat for an infant than HAVING to hold her with no option for hours on end. And, at worst, because its BA, we could just cancel her ticket and get refunded the avios if, after her first flight, we decide its no problem.
Plus, with 3 seats, no one else is forced to sit next to a baby, my wife can breastfeed in "privacy," etc.
Some good ideas there, thank you.
Could we try booking isle/window towards back, leave the middle open, hope no one takes it? At worst, I'm sure the middle will trade for either the isle or window...
I guess the problem is that uncharacteristically, we're flying holidays for the first time ever (xmas, memorial day.) Probably going to be full flights no matter what - and most likely, overbooked. I guess things do change when you have a kid!