Looking for some help regarding a family member's upcoming booking with an infant before I go absolutely berserk on an poor AC agent. First time anybody in the family has flown with an infant with a bassinet option, so I am not sure what the rules are.

We are requesting a bassinet for the mother & baby, and were told pre-booking that the fee to select the preferred seat in the bulkhead row that accommodates the bassinet would be waived for the parent who had the lap infant (and not for anyone else on the itinerary). Booked the flight, added the infant + bassinet request, but somehow the seats became unassigned, and I'm having to HUCA on repeat, since I keep being told different rules.

Over 5 phone calls, I've gotten the following answers:


Call #1: Before booking - asked how the whole thing worked, if there were age limits, etc., and was told in the process that the seat selection fee included for the mother holding the lap infant only. Great!

------ booked flight------

Call #2: Called to add the lap infant + bassinet request; paid the ~$190 fee to add the infant. Seat selection fee was indeed waived for the mother... but only for seat 33F [A330]. I requested 18C instead, since there are other relatives travelling on the flight in row 20 who could potentially help with baby duty, but was told that we would have to pay for 18C because it's a "bulkhead seat", and only 33F would be free (...even though it's also a bulkhead seat). Didn't believe the agent, but whatever, I wasn't about to argue. It is what it is - I'm not earning any commission for playing travel agent, and it ain't my baby or wifey anyway. Mama was assigned the appropriate bassinet seat in 33F. All was completed and was showing as 33F online... but then I noticed the seat became unassigned some 10-15 minutes later when I was trying to send a copy of the itinerary to Mama.


Call #3: Called back, and was told that the seat was selected by the agent, but was not "confirmed", as payment was never collected. It would cost $200 to "confirm" the seat. Also said that the lap infant was never added, which was funny since I literally was staring right at the lap infant's ticket on my computer, and could see the lap infant's name on the booking confirmation online. Decided to HUCA, as I had lost all faith in the agent.


Call #4: This agent had the audacity to say I was the confused one after reading out the rules to me, "seat fee will be waived for the mother (or person travelling with the lap infant) only". Finally agreed with me that it should be waived... then proceeded to ask for us to pay $100 x 2 to select the seat for Mama.


Call #5: Bulkhead row/preferred seats always require a charge, and one would have to pay for it, bassinet request or not.


Does somebody know what the actual rule is...? I find it hard to believe I was misinformed by the first two agents who helped me, but the last three have been 100% convinced I was making stuff up and must've misunderstood the agents I spoke to prior. No supervisor available since it's past normal business hours. I swear, call #6 is going to be to a therapist to help me get rid of this newfound anger at this rate...

Thanks!