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

Just wondering how this works at BA (and other airlines). I am traveling with my wife and two year old from ALC to LGW today. The flight is massively overbooked and when we presented ourselves at checkin, my wife and I were issued our boarding passes no problem, but it turned out they had taken my son off the flight. It just makes me wonder why on earth that would happen. He turned 2 only a couple of days ago and because of that he was on a separate PNR, so that may have made it more complicated somehow, although they must still be aware they are offloading a 2 year old... We are now having to sit with him on our lap, not the end of the world, but the whole issue is just annoying...

What I am wondering is who decides who gets offloaded, or whether it is an automated process...

Any suggestions as to what I can do (could have done) to somehow get a seat for him?

I thought it was a requirement that any passenger 2 years or older has their own seat; wouldn't this be in breach of regulations if permitted?

Was he actually booked as a child ?

You aren't going to be able to fly like that - I suggest you speak to the gate agent to get someone else offloaded so your son can have a seat.

If they don't do anything, tell the crew when you board.

I mentioned regulation at check-in, but the response was along the lines of 'do you want to fly or not'..? (and we do not fancy 4 more hours at the airport).

When booking I had to phone up because he turned two in between the outbound and inbound flights, which is why we ended up with separate PNRs, so if he was not booked as a child the reservation agent made a mistake.

Wow, that is incredible. I wonder who authorises the breach of policy re: infants in lap (the captain, the check-in staff?), or maybe the EU regulations are much more relaxed than FAA?

Would also point out to agent that if all 3 of you are involuntarily denied boarding that's a lot of cash compensation for BA to pay...

4 more hours for €750 cash and not having a 2 year old on your lap for half the flight (each) would be attractive to me!

(Sadly ALC-LGW just below 1500km where cash goes from €250 per pax to €400)

Hold your horses. This happened at Alicante, at check in, presumably by contract staff, with Iberia as the contract holder. It may be a gate agent in a pickle would say one thing, I suspect the BA staff on the aircraft, if it came to their attention, would say something very different. They would not want to face the consequences if something happened, quite rightly. The correct answer to Haax007 is to wait 4 hours, since there is a good underlying reason for the child to be strapped in. Pragmatically (but perhaps wrongly) it could be brought to the senior cabin crew member's attention, who would find the situation difficult but probably resolveable. Someone often fails to board.....

I'd take the IDB compensation and wait for the next flight. Not
Sure now the regs read but since a 2 year old probably can't fly as an unaccompanied minor then probably all three of you are IDB

I doubt they would pay the comp, be cheaper to offload a single person and give the child a seat...

Am I the only one thinking that a regulation that allows a baby at 1 year + 364 days to sit in a lap and a few hours later requires a separate seat deserves a "Spanish approach" to compliance?

Regulation is mostly good and there for a reason, but so is common sense.

Which would be the result OP wants I gather - the economics to BA would clearly make sense

Also you are due compensation for this denied boarding or 'downgrading'. Having your own seat to sitting on someones lap is a downgrade IMO

Possibly. There has to be an cut off at some point ( or just not permit lap infants at all ) ; using date of birth seems a perfectly reasonable approach

Silly of check-in agents to give boarding passes to parents and not the infant travelling with them. It's the sort of error a computer might make. But a human?

Anyway, the options are limited. I'd press the case for offloading an adult so your son can travel with you. If that isn't granted, then the later flight is your fall-back. I can understand not wanting to wait 4 hours but it could be worse. I wouldn't argue for travelling with child on lap. It's potentially highly dangerous and unless the regulations are discretionary you won't get far asking for them to be waived in your case.

And which law are you relying on to make this statement?