Originally Posted by
GUWonder
What I've seen done is getting the flights to be booked under the name of the child as it will be in the passport and to either get the birth-year loaded wrong (so as to make it seem like the child is old enough to be an adult or unaccompanied minor) or to book the travel/ticket over the phone with the correct birthdate in full. There is no general requirement to have the child's passport/passport details in order to book an international flight. I usually make such bookings without entering in any passport info into the booking. It's ok for the ticketed child's booking to be in its own booking reference locator.
It's possible to use a refundable ticket to present for applying for expedited passport service. Actually, it's the only thing I use when seeking expedited passport service in the US for US passport issuance.
Like other poster mentioned, I COULD book the flight for my son without passport number (can't verify if I could do that with Chase UR handling by Expedia yet) and then apply for a regular passport since I still have time until next Feb.
To avoid $200 penalty for taking my dad's name out of the issued ticket and replace with my son's name, I could do the way you mentioned that is putting the wrong year to make him not a minor. But the question is I don't know if the airline would even allow him to be aboard and to arrange he sits next to his grandparents on the flight day when they realize my son actually a minor. Thanks.