Can a lap infant international ticket be booked separately by a travel agent?
 

I know there is a long thread on infant fares on award tickets, but I have a slightly related but different question. Can a travel agent book an infant ticket separately, and then link it to an adult's record locator?

Here's the context: Mrs frmnj and I booked round trip EWR-MIA-EZE using our miles in first class. To add our infant son, AA in demanding $1220, which is about $500 more than what I see on ITA as an infant fare in first class for those flights. I gave the fare codes from ITA to the ExecPlat agent and after talking a couple of times to her pricing department, she said those fare codes are "internet fare codes that you need to book from where you see them and if you book with us its $1220."

After banging my head against that wall for 30 minutes, I am wondering if travel agents can book an infant fare separately if we give them the record locator of the parent's ticket. I tried Expedia and Orbitz, and they refused, and I have never really used a travel agent in person (outside of the Amex agents at work, who I am not supposed to use for personal tickets)

Just out of curiosity, is that fare offered on Expedia or Travelocity when you book yourself with the infant?

or is it one of those fares that ITA reports that's not actually available?

I think the agency would have to issue the adult ticket too, but I'm not positive.

Yes, the fare is available for sale at Orbitz, Expedia etc. The adult fares displayed by aa.com are much higher than what is available from online travel sites, so AA is charging the infant fare based on former.

Yes, if the travel agent knows his/her job!
But on a new booking charging the INF only!

Thanks kai.lileboo. Exactly what I was hoping for. If you or anyone else can PM me with contact details of a travel agent "who knows his job'" on things like these I would appreciate it.

About 10 years ago I had 2x adult business class tickets long haul on UA using mileage plus award. I got an infant ticket for my daughter by calling airline directly. The nasty part is that an INF ticket is 10% of the adult fare in the same cabin. In the case of a FF award they used the fare that would have been paid had I bought the tickets rather than used FF miles. Result was close to $800 for a infant lap ticket (based on round trip business class being close to $8000). As I said, nasty.

DAK

Yes...exactly the process that the OP is talking about...

I tried last year on two awards - the TA said that I had to buy the infant ticket from the airline.

ditto. I booked a flight from SFO-Bali in first class using our miles. the cost of a lap infant was 25% of the fare (because it was on Cathay Pacific) and it came out to around 1600 - one way. I still haven't booked the return flight but if that holds true, i'll pay over 3k for my baby girl to fly with us to Bali and back. crazy!!

If you take 3 oz. of chloroform and a piece of gauze, I would bet you could recoup your 3k from the other F pax pretty easily. :D

Can a lap infant international ticket be booked separately by a travel agent?
 

Ok, I have good news to report. The infant price came down from 1250 on the first call to AA to 1000 on the second call to 770 on the third call, close enough to what I was seeing on ITA as well as Expedia, Orbitz etc. All in a span of 12 hours. Makes me think the infant pricing is highly dependent on the pricing agent you get, so the old adage of keep calling till you get the right answer holds true.

And FWIW i was told by my Amex folks, who I have worked with for more than 10 years, that travel agents cannot ticket an infant fare if they did not book the adult ticket.

Having done this a few years back, they have to build a fare. How good they are building the fare is why it can vary (quality of the pricing agent). It is just a side effect of using awards in this way. I think a few airlines do 10% infant awards to help avoid this situation.

I do not believe you can even book an INF non-seat international at aa.com even (maybe no surprise to folks here).

Rasheed

AA also charged me $25 "External Reservation Handling Service". It doesn't seem right they can charge the service fee when that is the only option to order it. They never even mentioned the fee. They gave me the 10% plus tax amount and and I didn't see until I looked at the email.

Did you make use of the telephone service to make the booking? If so, seems fair that they charged that fee. No different to awards that need to be handled over the phone