apcd2

I have a reward flight booked for next June to the Caribbean. Upon booking I told the agent that my son turns two during the trip and was given a separate PNR for his return flight. I was able to reserve a seat for him next to us using it.

Yesterday I noticed that this separate PNR had been cancelled so called You First to find out what was going on. They said that the agent shouldn't have reserved a seat for him and I'd have to call back after the outbound flight to arrange for him to have a seat. Is this true? It seems to conflict with other people's experience from this thread and does make me feel nervous about there being no availability left come the time.

cbagent

The original agent was correct. The instructions are quite clear for sales agents. The reservation and seat allocation for " infant turns two " should be made at point of sale as at a later date there is no guarantee that a seat will be available. Not sure why You First agent told you otherwise.
I would most certainly call again and get this sorted and not wait until after outbund flight has been taken.

Anonba

The original agent was correct however they need to put a special remark in the booking otherwise revenue management would pick it up as an unticketed pnr that is not required and auto cancel it as happened.

apcd2

Thanks both for your help. I called You First back today and got an agent who seemed to know what to do. The return booking has been re-enabled with a suitable note in it to make sure it isn't cancelled again.

BunnyAndMummy

I know this is an old AF post, but did you end up doing this trip and what was the result?

this is my issue now, we are in the UK, daughter turned 2, BA state no seat for her available.

pulling my hair out that we will be stuck at the airport next week unable to board. She’s apparently “on the plane” but has zero seat and there’s no seat to allocate her either.

johnny5a

When you made the booking did you phone up to let them know that there's child turning 2 during the itinerary? That's what we did. Also I would turn up the airport early (unless this has changed) the process to get a seat takes a lot of keyboard tapping. Effectively they're converting a seat into a revenue seat.

BunnyAndMummy

sure did! We actually couldn’t book it without calling so had to book her, she got her own reference number etc they said call on her second birthday to have the seat allocated to her, and now they’re saying whoops no seats.

its been two-three weeks (most of our trip) of crying and stressing on the phone to them, if we can get through at all, because it seems like everything we’ve been told has been wrong!

gosh so stressful! Had I known we would have flown business and booked her flight back seperately!

HIDDY

My older brother and I have our birthdays in July. Me the 9th his the 29th. His always fell on the family's annual summer holiday and I remember feeling hard done by as the hotel we happened to be staying at always organised a birthday cake for him. Once his fell on the BEA flight home. By 'magic' the crew rustled something up to mark the occasion which was great for him but drove me flippin' with jealously.

dansound

I've taken advantage of this before, out on lap, back in own seat / bed with BA. Only paid infant costs, even though over 2years old on return.
actually booked intentionally around the birthday to take advantage of this process.

was on a multi sector flight, business, first and economy

Booking was ok, but checking in at airport on return was majorly stressful, as no seat allocated, despite booking saying otherwise. 2 hours to sort out. So would say this is far from a slick process.

Ziz

You have to call up after they turn 2 in order for it to work. If you didn't get the answer you needed, then maybe try calling again. I don't remember there being any issue at the airport, but at the same time, it was Nov 2020 so no real seat pressure.

I specifically planned a trip in CW around his 2nd birthday to take advantage of this. Because of the light loads, he ended up with his own seat on the outbound too. It must be quite aggravating for Y passengers to walk past someone whose legs don't even extend past the seat cushion sitting in J.

BunnyAndMummy

definitely rang on her birthday!

first call was told there isn’t a seat but they’d apply for it and call me back in a week, worst case she’d be a lap infant.

second call was “No seats, no lap infant, you need to pay for a whole new flight for all of you as there’s no seats available for the child at all”.

been calling (to no avail, message says sorry too many calls try again later) managed to get a hold of Australian call Center (we are Aussie) and they say she’s booked on the flight but just can’t pick a seat, as there’s none available. The last we heard the ceo of BA Australia is calling tomorrow but honestly who knows.



so frustrating to me!

BA refund helper

Hi, please PM me the booking reference(s) to look at. It's my team that does the ticketing for this, so I can check that part is ok.

BunnyAndMummy

have done thank you.

Flaps Down

Obviously this was months ago but I've only just seen this thread. Hopefully you managed to get it sorted in time?

For future readers, I think the take-home message is that you should not take 'no' for an answer. Get the child concerned a seat well in advance, however many calls it takes! I happened to be successful calling the BAEC for an Avios booking, but if you've got a revenue booking, just keep trying as many calls as it takes because it's such a rare occurrence that perhaps it's understandable that agents are not familiar with the process.

FWIW, the booking to which I was referring (five years ago) was successfully organised nine months in advance. So you definitely do not need to wait for the child's second birthday.

(Hilariously, Flaps Down Jnr was actually given TPs for that sector. That year, they ended up being closer to status than I was!)

Anonba

To be clear, you don’t need to wait until they are two.

When making a booking if your infant turns two mid travel, the booking for the return should be set up there and then.