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Two-year old denied boarding (and parents are not)

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Two-year old denied boarding (and parents are not)

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Old Sep 21, 2013, 6:33 am
  #31  
 
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Originally Posted by Dave Noble
Um. the infant becoming child ticket is not charged for by BA iirc => a genuinely free ticket and so not covered

It is not the same as a redemption ticket which is specifically covered
Is it free, or just not charged extra for - infant fare is 10%, so money has changed hands. The fact that they have charged the amount of an infant fare but contracted to provide child fare service does not make it free IMO

(suspect half the posts will now be moved to EU261 thread!)
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 8:49 am
  #32  
 
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Originally Posted by Bullswood
[...] In our case, because the original res agent had apparently forgotten to put a ticket number in the child's separate PNR for the complimentary return seat on the sector back to the UK (despite having given us the allocated seat numbers for the whole party of 2 + 1), the system picked up this omission and unbeknown to us, automatically cancelled the child's booking a few days before the flight departure.
I suppose the separate reservation just wasn't ticketed (former BMI Diamond Club members have a lot of experience in this ), so after some time it has been automatically cancelled.
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 9:28 am
  #33  
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Bottom line here is that if OP can't get this resolved with ground staff, it should be raised through CC to the Captain. He can't push back with a 2 YOA not in his own seat, so the child becomes a "must fly" and someone else gets offloaded.

Don't count on BA off-loading all three. BA could off-load one parent involuntarily and offer the other parent the "courtesy" of a rebook if he wants or could be snarky and not offer the courtesy rebook to the 2nd parent.

I don't think that the 2 YOA ticket is a revenue ticket in any sense of the word. It is relatively uniquely free amongst air carriers as most would require the purchase of a seat for the 2 YOA for the return.
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 10:13 am
  #34  
 
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If the ground staff issue a boarding card for an infant to sit on the lap of the parents, the cabin crew will not know the child is over 2 years old. They will assume that the child is the correct age for an infant boarding card.

If the crew are told the child is over 2 years old by either the parents or ground staff, they will not let it travel on the lap of the parents.

I hope this is sorted out for the OP.
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 10:34 am
  #35  
 
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Originally Posted by Littlegirl
If the ground staff issue a boarding card for an infant to sit on the lap of the parents, the cabin crew will not know the child is over 2 years old. They will assume that the child is the correct age for an infant boarding card.

If the crew are told the child is over 2 years old by either the parents or ground staff, they will not let it travel on the lap of the parents.

I hope this is sorted out for the OP.
Even if this somehow got past the check-in desk, wouldn't this be a risk as well at boarding when documents get checked? I suppose if they're only comparing names to passports, it would be fine, but date of birth is right there and I'd think that would be something to double check on an "infant" booking.

Although it sounds like this could go various ways, (from my comfortable armchair) I'd consider anything other than all three travelling in seats or all three getting IDB compensation and taking the next flight a very poor show.

I think a friend of mine who used to do a lot of round-the-worlds had a situation not altogether unlike this with his daughter when she turned two during a round-the-world of their whole family in Club (it was probably mid '80s). Back then on the affected leg(s), BA kept downgrading the mother to Y (since they were all in J, required seats by law, and only an adult could get downgraded), but onboard in those days a resourceful captain was able to make a happy service recovery by letting the father take a seat on the flight deck, which for him was much better than J.
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 10:55 am
  #36  
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If it is the flight that I am thinking, I would imagine that it landed at Gatwick five hours ago. It would be interesting for the OP to come back and tell us what actually happened.

I am a devil for unfinished business and whilst it is interesting to speculate I a peddler in facts. It is entirely possible that there were no-shows and indeed there may have been other people that could be turfed off the aircraft (staff friends and family etc).

Let's wait and see.
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 2:15 pm
  #37  
 
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Interested to hear outcome too.

I for one have learnt something i.e BA's fairly generous (unique?) policy regarding infants who have a birthday whilst away.
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 2:30 pm
  #38  
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If the infant does travel on the lap, what implication would this have for the insurance that air carriers provide for pax? And any subsequent events.

Doesn't bear thinking about, IMHO.
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 8:06 pm
  #39  
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Originally Posted by PUCCI GALORE
there may have been other people that could be turfed off the aircraft
"turfed off the aircraft"....

How common.....almost as bad as "get aff ye nyaff".
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Old Sep 21, 2013, 9:28 pm
  #40  
 
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.....

Last edited by angatol; Feb 28, 2015 at 9:54 pm
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Old Sep 22, 2013, 1:41 am
  #41  
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Thanks for all your responses. We ended up flying with him on our lap. The gate agent was the same person that checked us in, so that wasn't going to change anything. There were loads of people waiting at the gate hoping to get on the flight (on standby I suppose) as there had been a cancellation the night before (so no empty seats). He was on our lap on the outbound flight 7 days ago, so we figured he could sit on our lap again this time. Not ideal, but this seemed to be the most practical solution without running the risk of having to wait for the next flight.
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Old Sep 22, 2013, 1:43 am
  #42  
 
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Wow. Did you tell the cabin crew, or keep schtum to get home?

I presume this was BA2631 yesterday?
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Old Sep 22, 2013, 1:49 am
  #43  
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Originally Posted by 710 77345
Wow. Did you tell the cabin crew, or keep schtum to get home?

I presume this was BA2631 yesterday?
Did not tell the crew. Flight BA2631 indeed.
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Old Sep 22, 2013, 2:18 am
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by Haax007
Originally Posted by 710 77345
Wow. Did you tell the cabin crew, or keep schtum to get home?

I presume this was BA2631 yesterday?
Did not tell the crew. Flight BA2631 indeed.
A sensible approach by you, but you should report this to BA because this shouldn't happen. If BA know, they presumably have to report themselves. It may be a minor infringement in this case, but what else will that member of staff turn a blind eye to?
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Old Sep 22, 2013, 3:03 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by Disco Volante
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A sensible approach by you, but you should report this to BA because this shouldn't happen. If BA know, they presumably have to report themselves. It may be a minor infringement in this case, but what else will that member of staff turn a blind eye to?
Surely if you were aware that it was illegal (if indeed it is illegal rather than a BA rule) and yet still went along with it then you became an accessory. Personally I'd just forget about it now.
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