Infant ticket question to bahamas.
 

I bought two tickets for me and wife on continental from MSP-NAS through expedia a few days back as continental website was not working. We also have a 20 month old baby that will be a lap child. My question is : is NAS considered domestic or international, do we need to pay 10% for lap child as for international flights or not as in domestic ones. ? Also if as in domestic do i have to add his name to Iten.?
thanks

Don't forget the baby needs a passport.

This is an International flight.

Yes, the baby needs an infant ticket and a passport.

Have a great day!!!

This helps to clarify things:

Continental's International Route Map including NAS:
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...rld_200803.pdf

Continental's ticketing rules for lap children:
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...0D7786D691D3E9

Ticketing

Infants under the age of 2, traveling without a seat within the 50 U.S., do not require a ticket. All infants traveling internationally must have a ticket, even if no seat is purchased.

Infants traveling between the U.S. and Canada only pay taxes on the ticket. Infants traveling to other international destinations are charged 10 percent of the adult fare at the time of infant ticketing (it is usually less expensive to purchase the infant ticket in advance). Infants traveling with adults on front-cabin free rewards or upgrades must pay 10 percent of the front cabin fare in applicable markets.

I thought that CO charged 10% of the full Y fare (~$65++ for MSP-NAS), not 10% of the going rate. Is that not the case?

Weird. I just priced a dummy itinerary from IAH-NAS for April 15-22 on the direct flight. Prices for all U fares were:

1 Adults (age 18 to 64) $426.00
1 Infants (under age 2 at time of travel) $45.00
Additional Taxes/Fees $127.60
Total Price $598.60

So it's unclear how the 10% is applied. It's not 10% of adult fare (pre tax) and unless tax on adult fare is $24 (making lap child tax = $103.6) I don't see where the 10% is coming from.

Similar thing happens when I price out a Y fare:

1 Adults (age 18 to 64) $1,691.00
1 Infants (under age 2 at time of travel) $172.00
Additional Taxes/Fees $127.60
Total Price $1,990.60

Can anyone shed some light on my confusion?

I believe that the infant ticket doesn't pay the Federal Excise Tax (7.5% of fare). I priced a ticket with and without an infant. One had taxes of ~$86 on an $800 ticket and the other had taxes of $132 including the infant. The difference seems to be covered by most of these charges:That adds up to $56, which is pretty close to the tax differences. Maybe the Bahamas charges less for a child. Without going through and actually purchasing the ticket CO.com won't tell you really what the taxes are.

On the plus side, it is nice to see that CO charges 10% of whatever is currently for sale and not a full Y.

Hi sbm12, that's not correct. For international lapchild tickets, we charge 10% of lowest available fare plus applicable taxes. Please note that the 10% calculation is based on the lowest fare that is available at the time of the infant's booking, not the time of the adult's booking. The only way to guarantee that the 10% is based on the same fare as the adult is to book both at the same time. For customers on international Economy Class free travel rewards, the lapchild ticket will be 10% of the lowest available fare at the time of booking. For customers on international First Class & BusinessFirst free travel rewards and mileage upgrades, the 10% rate will be based on the lowest available First Class/BusinessFirst fare.

Hi familyflier, we do currently have an issue causing us to incorrectly itemize our infant fares. Nonetheless, they’re still adding up to be the correct amount. In your first example, the infant base should be showing as $45.30, not $45.00. The way we get to $45.30 is by taking 10% of $423 (which is the adult base fare without the $3 in segment fees added on) and then adding the $3 in segment fees. On top of this there’s an incremental $45 in taxes and fees. The total infant fare in this example, including all taxes and fees is $90.30. We do have a problem log open to ensure the infant fares are itemized correctly.

Unless there has been a change, there should be no Bahamian departure tax for children.

Hi bruceba, in the example provided above there was no Bahamian departure tax. Specifically, here's the breakdown of the $90.30:
While this actually totals out to $90.60, our pricing system is incorrectly calculating the base fare $0.30 in the customer's favor. I hope this clarifies.

Scott, you're a god. Thanks for the attention to detail.