Originally Posted by
YYT82
It wasn't clear in the article whether the family made it explicitly clear to the airport agent that the lone passenger on the ticket was a child. Even if they did make it clear, I doubt the agent could make the change without involving ticketing. After the 24 hours grace period, any changes to the PNR, aside from special meals or seat selection, requires re-issuance of the ticket. That includes changing the ticket from an adult to a minor (and then the family's PNR must be linked to the child's PNR). I just tried to book a dummy domestic ticket for a child, and AC.com doesn't even allow me to do so. It has a warning message that a child must be travelling with an adult (defined as 16 years or older), and that to make such a booking one must contact AC reservations at least 48 hours prior to scheduled departure. So within the OLCI window, it's already too late.
Granted, not every family has a SE member in the household that knows the rules reasonably well; however, it doesn't take away the need to know some basics to avoid such incidents. How to book tickets when travelling with children is one of them IMO.
So you are saying AC couldn't link the PNRs within 24 hrs of departure (if in fact there were two PNRs, we don't know we are just assuming) and the agent could not block the kid from being bumped once his age was known? Why would AC say they didn't deal directly with the passengers when they were talking to an AC agent the day before departure?
You are right, not every family has an SE to explain the rules when booking. Maybe if the rules are so intricate and inflexible, AC should be explaining them during the booking process. An easy fix to this problem would have been if AC asked for the DOB of every passenger booking like they do for international travel.