We travel with a rug rat - better behaved than at least 10% of the adult flying public, in case anyone is already wording a ****ing comment - who will become 12 in the midst of this year's rtw.

Surprisingly, my TA commented that *Alliance has the rule that if the birthday occurs during travel, their gift to the lucky kid is to price his whole trip as an adult.

I thought I'd remembered noting just the opposite rule in some context that I hope was OWE. I've also noticed that OW carriers have quite a bit of flexibility (or confusion) about the rules and how they apply. Does anyone have any experience with this?

(Hmmm, the computer won't let me say 'd@mning'. That didn't seem too intense for this audience.)

[This message has been edited by JohnAx (edited 01-24-2003).]

Better than 10% of flyers? You mean better than 90%?

Seems you could issue the ticket as open and it wouldnt be an issue at that point. The only point that age would be a factor is when it's actually ticketed.

I know that with return tickets it is the age at commencement of the first flight sector that counts. So if he is 1 day before 12 years on the day of the first flight he should be able to be on a child's fare. I think this is an IATA rule - so I would call again - provide his DOB and just ask for the child fare - without going into the details of his birthday during the trip. They should be able to ticket it without question.

Well, that might work. The rate desk surely can't apply the 12-month maximum validity automatically, because if they used that illogic, a kid would become ineligible the day after he turned eleven. Unfortunately, if you get the "wrong" answer on an rtw pricing - even if it's really wrong - I strongly suspect that the simple approach of re-submitting in hopes of getting a different agent won't help, but perhaps appealing to a supervisor might.

Mainly I was asking to learn if anyone knew what the really correct answer was, so that if I didn't like the answer I get from the rate desk I'd know if I should complain up the management chain or try another approach.