oneworld award w/ infant
 

My wife and I are at the kicking tire stage of burning miles earned on a previous DONE5. Our trip is tentatively planned for next summer/fall. Our possible options are as follows:

- YVR-DPS-BNE-YVR - Route is totally flexible in terms of connecting through NRT or HKG on the outbound, and any possible connections using SYD, LAX, SFO, HKG, or NRT on the inbound.

- YYC-GVA-BDA-MIA-YYC - Route is flexible with respect to connecting through either LHR or MAD on the outbound and inbound with a preference to crossing the pond on BA or IB and not AA.

My first question relates to calculating the fare for an accompanying infant less than 18 months old. The infant would not occupy a seat. The AAdvantage representative that I spoke to indicated that it would be 10% of the lowest adult business class fare if the infant is traveling with an adult in business class. Is this correct? The rules on AA.com appear to be silent with respect to this issue.

The second questions relates to ticketing the reward tickets prior to the birth of the child and then subsequently ticketing the infant ticket. Ignoring the ethical questions related to planning the trip prior to the child’s birth, what issues might I run into with the airlines in terms of obtaining the tickets in two steps, two reward tickets first with a purchased infant ticket at a later time? Obviously with reward tickets, time is of the essence and the sooner they are ticketed, the higher the likelihood of getting preferred routes & airlines if not destinations.

The final question is relatively easy. The rules stipulate 2 airlines other than AA and the possible use of AA as a third. Is it a minimum of 2 other airlines or must it be only 2 airlines. For instance, could a OneWorld award include JL, CX, QF & AA?

Thanks in advance for any advice that is offered.

BdaDiver

1. The AA agent is correct.
2. There are well established ways of booking a ticket for an unborn child; talk to AA.
3. Two or more airlines; if AA is one of them then three or more. In other words, the rule is about the minimum, not the absolute number.

Gracias Viajero.

Regarding Qustion 1: I am not sure whether Viajero is correct (but I can be wrong).
You say that you want to burn miles on this trip so I assume it is an award ticket. So when you ask about the infant fare being 10%, do you ask whether the baby will have to pay 10% of the points required for an adult?
I have booked award tickets for Micro DUF before on QF and LH (but I haven't used the OneWorld award). QF didn't charge me any points or taxes for the baby and LH didn't charge me any miles but did charge me fines and taxes.

Not an unheard event, for sure, but alas, not this time:

http://www.aa.com/content/agency/Tra...ild_umnr.jhtml

Yes absolutely for paid fares. But I thought I read on the AA board that when using an AAward, infants not occupying a seat were free? eg on QF awards lap infants are free......


Added: On further search it seems I must have been imagining.....

As for purchasing a ticket before the child is born, we did just that for a DONE4. We decided to wait until we found out the sex of the baby before issuing the tickets - once we knew the sex we knew what the name would be. We could have just done it with an initial instead of the full first name (at least back then).

The interesting thing was that we started on the ticket before min-alect was born. Most of the time checking in with 3 tickets and then pointing to mrs alect's stomache was humourous. Only the CX agents in HKG were a bit baffled by the whole concept and lost until I said we can just throw away the coupon for the INF for that segment.:D

We have kept the INF BP for QF F MEL-LAX in her "baby book" as a momento she travelled in F before birth.

Well, I think I will shut up right now. I am flabbergasted. So they really say that the baby will have to pay 10% of a First Class Fare even if the parents used award miles. How bizarre.
Apologies for not believing you.

Goodness, no, please, anyone here with a post count of 1 or more has been wrong enough times to sport a semi permanent blush on the cheeks, so go ahead and challenge away, it's what keeps this place at a high tech level.

By the way, it's not exactly 10% of a FC fare, it's 10% of the fare "...for the cabin they are traveling in".

It can be a lot of money but that is the rule.

The unknown issue is whether it has to be 10% of the full fare (in the applicable cabin) or 10% of the cheapest available fare (in the applicable cabin). I have had AAgents tell me it's the latter (as long as the fare allows infant discounts). Others on FT have reported it has to be the former.

The AA agent that I spoke to indicated that it was "the lowest published fare" for the cabin in which the accompanying adult is travelling.

Don't forget that 100% of the fuel fine applies to the INF. I've seen an economy ticket NYC-LON that had a $26 fare (10%) plus $142 fuel fine.

Completely shameful!!

I have done 6 infant tickets to accompany F fares in the last year and a half (our daughter is 15 months). This particular nuance varies by carrier, even within alliance. What matters is whose ticket stock the ticket is on. For example we are holding SFO-NRT-HKG using JAL and CX. It is JAL stock, JAL rules apply. We paid 10% of the HIGHEST business class fare because JAL sets a cap and does not charge F pax 10% of the F fare. We are also holding LAX-HKG on CX and so this is CX stock, and we paid 10% of the lowest F class fare at time of payment for the infant ticket.

Another nuance, JAL allows a refund of the infant ticket for 100 yen (yes, you read that correctly). CX charges considerably more - about US$120.

Lots of rules to learn with the infant tickets.

In response to the OP's question about the child being unborn, I have never found a carrier where the infant seats are "capacity controls" - so you certainly can ticket you and your wife now and then just get the infant ticket later. But you will be subject to two downsides: (a) if there are "preferred" bassinet positions on that carrier they may be gone (if to another pax without child, they might be moved to accommodate you, but thsi can be a serious hassle; or they might be gone to another pax with child in which case you lose the bassinet position) and (b) if you are ticketed on the stock of a carrier which charges 10% based on the price at the TIME of ticketing, things could get worse (or, less often, better) in the interim period.

Good luck with it. We've seen a lot of nasty eyes in 6 trips. But our baby is quiet and good and doesn't raise a fuss. We've been to Dubai, Europe twice, Asia twice...all good. Enjoy it! ^