This is a little bewildering. CO asserts that infants without their own seats traveling on their parents' laps -- the infelicitously termed "lap children" -- must nevertheless purchase a full fare ticket when traveling internationally. Domestically, they just need to be registered but don't need a ticket. 1K or more just to sit on a lap?! That's driving me away from flying with my young family on CO. The policy is here:

https://www.continental.com/web/en-U...pert#Bassinets

(Note that the FAQ for "Traveling with Infants" is under "Customers with Disabilities")

A few bad CO decisions here. Since when is having an infant a "disability"?! And why the arbitrary decision to compel international lap children to buy a full-fare ticket? Any way around that?

I looked through the forums for info on this, but didn't find it. Would be happy to hear others' thoughts.

Where do you see the requirement to buy a full-fare ticket? The infant in arms has to pay 10% of the fare at the time the infant is ticketed, plus any taxes.
As for the disabilities thing, it is really in the "Special Needs" section which they apparently named wrong. C'est la vie.

I've had enough of my flights made miserable by "lap children" that I wholly support this policy.

The way I read it, infants are only charged 10 percent of the adult fare in cases where they are required to buy a ticket.

As an aside, personally, I am not sure that I have a problem with any policy that discourages young children from flying on Continental.

edit: Beat me to it!

Useful to remember here is that while you might go flying after you hit a bump at 60mph, you'd then imagine what would happen to a lap child on a plane hitting a bump at 560mph.

I'm just curious to know how lap children have made your travels worse as opposed to infants who have their own seats?

From my experience the international fare is only 10%+taxes and can easily be ticketed online.

So, you have a $10k tkt ($1k=10% of $10k adult fare)? AFAIK, this has been the policy on CO for a while & I'm not clear why there is any issue with paying the 'infant' fare -- this is not full-fare!

what are you talking about full fare. like everybody else has said 10% plus taxes.

Also agree lap babies don't cause any more disturbance than a baby in its own seat usually. Occassionally you have a baby that kicks when they are on the lap but that could easily be the case if the baby was in its own seat with a car seat too.

I dont care for those either. But, I've yet to see a policy which discourages the buying of a seat for infants. If one were to materialize, I would sing its praises as well.

CO's website considers the following to be "customers with disabilities":

1) unaccompanied minors
2) infants
3) pregnant women
4) customers requiring extra seating
5) the bereaved
6) seniors

The following are not "customers with disabilities"

1) people traveling with pets
2) people who request special meals

Not sure I agree with the bereaved being considered "customers with disabilites" but the rest seem spot on.

Incidentally, it appears that CO does not hate any of these people, since it seems happy to sell them tickets if they pay in full

OP clearly needs reading comprehension help. It is only 10% of the adult fare, and does not (necessarily) require 10% of a "full fare ticket". I believe this policy applies on many other airlines for international travel. Good grief.

The govt is presently considering a regulation requiring all passengers to have their own seat including infants. The days of lap children at a big discount may be numbered.

Good. On overseas flights there's no argument that more kids would get killed in road accidents instead. All kids should be secured in seats of their own.

I so agree. I have a 15 month old who has flown several times and we have always purchased a seat for her. I can't imagine flying without having a seat for her. It would be worse for us, worse for her, worse for others flying, etc...... I truly believe if you are going to travel with a child you need to be prepared to purchase a seat for that child.

Not CO but I was on Air Botswana last year. Someone had a lap kid allowed to run up and down the aisle. If they had hit a bump that kid could have got hurt. Worse the someone was on the Gaborone-Kasane flight. 3 days later she was on the return flight. Same behavior