LonLH

I had booked a couple of OnePass award tickets on AF J a few months ago- an infant had to be added to the reservation, but since the child did not have a name at that time, CO could not make an infant ticket for him. We were told that the lap infant can be added later- we were planning to purchase a lap infant ticket which cost 10% of full J fare and taxes..
Now that the child has a name, I called the OP service centre to get an infant ticket for him. I was told that since all segments are on AF metal, they can not issue an infant ticket on CO stock and I have to call AF. I called AF and they told me that since it is CO which issued the adult ticket I have to contact CO.
After calling CO and AF one after the other several time and getting the same message (AF is saying CO has to issue the ticket, CO is saying AF has to issue the ticket), I am at a loss as to what to do. Buying another award ticket is not an option as there is no O inventory left on the outbound, AF will not sell me a ticket for an infant (even if I pay full child fare) unless an adult is accompanying the infant.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. We are travelling in December so there is enough time to get the infant ticket once we sort out who can issue the ticket.

sbm12

Three-way calling is your friend in a situation such as this.

Good luck, and congrats on the new baby!

johdhj

Congratulations on the new baby!

I had a similar situation, but minus the baby (ticketed a KE flight on CO.com). I tried changing seats, CO said it was a KE issue, KE said it was a CO issue, and I was bounced back and forth for a number of times.

As the reply above has stated, 3 way calling is your best bet. Or in my case, get CO on the horn and have the CO agent call the AF agent while you're still on the line.

Best of luck

ajhun9

Can't this also be done at the airport on the day of the flight when checking in? I don't like to leave things until last minute, but that might be an option if it doesn't get resolved over the phone.

erik123

As this is a revenue ticket for the infant - I'm fairly certain AF will have to issue it. Ask CO for your AF pnr for the award tickets - call AF again and just try to buy the ticket. When they ask for the pnr for the adult ticket - don't tell them it's an award - just give them the AF pnr. If the reservations agent isn't willing to help ask for a supervisor.

sbm12

CO will sell you the infant ticket at 10% of the available rate at the time of purchase. Some carriers charge you 10% of the full fare no matter what. If there is a discount J seat available buying it now could save a good chunk of change. Otherwise the OP certainly can buy it at the airport - I know at least one person who did on the UA NZ fare deal and it was as much as their full ticket price - but it will be a pain to deal with and possibly more expensive.

LonLH

Thanks a lot for your inputs.
3-way calling is not an option as one of the parties is AF (not at all helpful) and I am getting nowhere with them as they insist that it is a CO record. I tried giving them the AF booking refernce, but the moment they access the record they come back to me and sing the same song- it is a CO reservation, CO has to do infant ticketing.
CO claims that they can not find a fare as all the segments are on AF metal- so they can not issue a ticket.
I will keep trying with both AF and CO for a few weeks- have a fallback option now as I have managed to get two seats of LX J/F (now that the infant has a name there is no problem to ticket him). Downside of LX is I will pay 25GBP per pax for cancellation of LX tickets and will be stuck with Onepass miles which I am trying to burn as we have lots of them. And LX has two changes and a 5 hour layover at ZRH compared to 1 change with AF- too many changes could be a bit of a problem with an infant as he is still untested flightwise.
I will try the AF ticket desk in LHR when I am passing by next time and see if talking to human being would help. The infant will be on a revenue ticket anyway so it is some extra money for them without losing a J seat during peak X-mas holiday time.

sbm12

Did you try having CO call AF while on the phone with them instead of trying to put together the 3-way call yourself? You might have better luck that way. Or get the AF PNR from CO and call AF citing that, but it sounds like that has a lower probability of working.

rasheed

From my understanding in doing this with UA, you cannot have an infant on international travel on its own PNR and they have to be with the adult. If the adult ticket was issued by CO, then it is likely that CO will need to build the ticket for the infant (and build the fare somehow to determine the 10% cost).

This is a very advanced function no doubt for ticketing, but I know UA has a dedicated team that builds fare for this and other purposes as I did something similar where I did the adult tickets via miles and had to pay some sort of value for the infant ticket. Are you able to find the adult fare cost for the flight on the continental website (doing a dummy booking). If so and there was a way you could put that on hold, it might help you get the 10% pricing for CO to do.

Rasheed

LonLH

I have spoken to a CO agent in IAH today over the phone and she has promised to call AF and see if they can do the ticketing. Problem was that by the time I called Paris was closed so they will have to do it tomorrow.
I already had the AF PNR from CO when I called them the first time- the moment they open the record they wash their hands off and say it is a CO problem as the original booking is a CO booking and they can't touch it.

LonLH

This is what AF tells me.
This is the problem- CO can not price this ticket (I tried on their website) and they tell me that they can not issue a ticket on CO stock unless there is at least one CO segment.
AF is showing a fare of around 5800 EUR on their website at the moment, which is pretty close to the full J fare.

channa

Technically CO can issue an AF ticket on CO stock. Procedurally, CO agents apparently have been instructed not to. Clearly this is an exception to the norm, and it can be done by the right person.

I have a feeling if you get through to the ticketing folks (via supervisor), you'll get it done.

I spent two hours the other night back and forth with CO on a ticketing issue. After I kept challenging them, they finally agreed to call the ticketing desk, who was happy to assist, and my problem was resolved in 2 minutes. The challenge is not your problem per se, rather it's getting through the fiery hoops.

damaxer91

Has anyone ever figured out a way to navigate through this mess? I have a CO Award ticket on TG,LX & BD and am getting the run-around from everyone!

hughw

I booked award tickets for family last summer for travel in April. The flights were on TAP Portugal. My daughter was due to have a baby in September. I booked without the infant. Then called CO later in the fall after the baby had a name and a passport. After some calls to TAP, they figured out the cost of a RT, charged me 10% for a lap infant, and added the infant to the CO record.

Problem was that it didn't flow into the TAP system. When we got to EWR, the TAP agent had to make some calls to get a electronic ticket number, and it took a bit of time at the check-in desk, but all was well. SHe suggested that we make a record of the infant's ticket number to save us hassle on the way back, and this turned out to be useful in Lisbon.

But bottom line, CO can sell the ticket. Perhaps it would be good then to call the other airline and make sure that they have the electronic ticket number in their system.