Booking international ticket for unborn child
 

We are expecting a baby in October, but have no name (or passport) yet. We are going to book tickets to India over Christmas ... do we book a ticket for "Infant Nair", or do we book it after the baby is born? We won't need a seat, but it would be nice to purchase all of the tickets at the same time.

Is there a standard policy or does it vary by airline?

They will put "infant/nair" or "baby/nair" on the ticket. Should be no problem. If you book without a seat i is helpful to book early so you can secure bassinet seats (with luck).

I hope your wife is strong enough for such a long trip so soon after childbirth.

I booked a points ticket for myself and a 10% baby fare, before my son was born. AFter he was born I called the airline and had the name changed from Baby G to his name. Was not a problem. This was on Alitalia/Delta.

Lorna

I tried it on United and wasn't able to book a seat for the child until I had a name. Baby LightingGuy wasn't allowed, or any other permutation. They wouldn't even allow me to book 2 seats for myself, with the plan of giving one to my as yet unborn (and un-named) child.

We did it both ways - Thai preferred us to wait until he was born so they could put down he or she. On Aer Lingus (online), I just put down 2 initials - the initial of the name we had chosen if he was a boy and the same if he was a girl. I guessed (correctly) the sex because we didn't know until the birth. At the time of flying, Aer Lingus didn't notice/didn't care that his second initial on the booking wasn't on his passport...

I called Air France, Emirates, and Northwest (the most likely carriers for us), and they all said that an infant ticket can only be purchased after the birth. We can book the other family members' tickets before then, and add the infant later, since she won't need a seat.

An infant fare is 10% of the adult fare at the time of purchase, so it might be higher than 10% of the adult fares we ticket now.

Thanks for your responses!

As far as I know you can wait to add the infant until after birth, unless you want a seat ?

Secondly the ticket will read anyway your name plus infant, no real BP for infant. The infant is booked under your name.

be aware some Airline charge 10% of full econ or at least exempt some Y fares from the 10% discount, so it might be more expensive then you think

This reminds me of a flight I had last week. These parents-to-be in F had an unborn child out of control. It was kicking, sucking its thumb and swishing all around inside its mom. Man, 20 years ago parents would not have tolerated such behavior, but parents-to-be today...don't get me started.

I hope that at minus 20 weeks the baby was strong enough to stand such an ordeal ;) ^

Faced the same situation a few years ago, and had to provide a name in order to get a seat. We hadn't wanted the doctor to tell us if it was a boy or girl, but this was the only way we could decide on a name. Fortunately the doctor was right!

Good one ^


We booked an actual ticket for our daughter before she was born, using FF miles, and it wasn't a problem. I think the ticket was for Infant LastName.

Make sure your baby have his/her certified birth certificate or passport to travel international.

We have a simular situation that our unborn baby will be traveling to a country that requires several weeks to obtain a visa. We are looking at a 30 day delay to obtain a birth certificate, 30 days for a social security number, 30-45 days for a passport, and then several weeks for a visa and it has to be in this order. You can't get one item without the previous required item. Some steps can be sped up with higher fees and in person visits but watch out for those delays.