Originally Posted by
thetinkerer
Hi,
So I understand this is a bad idea but I'm just playing a "what if" game.
Booking airfare, Europe -> US -> Europe on United.com yields a price of $1,000. Important: all of the flights are operated by Lufthansa, not United.
The same flight booked through any other means is $1,500.
The problem is, this is for 2 kids, aged 13, and United cannot book this flight unless they're at least 15.
Here comes the bad idea: say I book the flights on United.com and get the huge savings by marking the birth year so it's 2003 (i.e. saying they're 15). Once the booking goes through, I call Lufthansa and explain that a mistake was made and that their birth year is 2005. Lufthansa (the carrier in this case) does not have a mandatory unaccompanied minor requirement for them (this is only for kids 12 and under and they're 13).
What's the worst that could happen? What do you guys think? I read a bit and it appears that the DOB being wrong is not a huge deal normally.
An incorrect birth-year in a PNR can be corrected at or during check-in for Europe-US-Europe trips when flying UA and/or LH, if not even earlier. If an incorrect birth-year loaded at time of initial booking and ticketing were a problem, I would have already seen it be a problem; but I haven't seen it as a problem. As long as the correct birthdate info from the valid passport data is loaded in at time of check-in and travel using the correct passport data, the earlier birthdate in the PNR being removed and needing replacement for check-in isn't a show-stopper for the trip.
What can be a show-stopper for the trip is the airline and/or government policies that relate to the travel of minors of some ages; but the birthdate info field needing revision isn't the problem with that -- it's the actual age of the children traveling without an adult that can be the issue.
Have you considered booking the ticket with a 24-hour free cancel policy of sort and see what UA and LH says? The airline/airlines may tell you to deal with the ticketing carrier/agency, but the operating carrier should be able to tell you and do more upon having a PNR to look at.