Wow, fascinating.

Did you tell united.com when you made the booking that the traveler was a child rather than an adult? The general consensus is that it's usually better to book an "adult" ticket.

Airlines used to offer discounted "child" tickets for passengers aged 2-12 but in most cases United no longer offers such a discount and in the future you might as well book as an "adult". Weird behavior triggers when you use non "adult" designations for passengers — just put their correct date of birth in, and things should be ok.

I've never had an issue with "child" versus "adult." The system has always let me know if there's an issue based on the birthdate only

Technically, the rules say they have to be on the same reservation, but I've never had an agent give me a hard time about it... Ever.

Edit: my apologies, it looks like the 'same reservation' clause is no longer on the website. A change I like - for all practical purposes, it was never enforced anyway.

I wonder if it is aircraft type specific, trying to avoid putting kids in the rows which may require the "airbag" seat belts. But I also didn't think UA had any like that. :confused:

As someone who has traveled with his soon-to-be 2 year old daughter in both lap seats and on paid tickets, in first class and economy, on mainline and express, widebody and narrow, I tell you there are no restrictions to bulkhead seating whether it be a lap infant or in a seat, as long as its not also an exit row.

Agent was confused. Pretty much end of story.

If it's popping up on the agents' screens, it could very well be an unadvertised new-for-2016 policy and your (and my) previous experiences would be moot (*grumble* lack of transparency *grumble*)

I just had my 9 year old in bulkhead on 2 different UA/UX flights.

However, as a side note: I probably would not do it again his books and gadgets needed to be stored above, it was easier to access via under-seat storage. YMMV

Depends on the equipment. Airbus twins and some of the 737's have underseat storage in the bulkheads. Others do not. If you can get 7E/F on the ERJ 170/175 or CR7, that's also great.

Long-standing policy; it's been that way as long as I have been a UA elite (2004). My wife, when on a separate PNR but traveling with me, has always been able to sit in E+ with me.

The problem of course is when there are schedule changes or anything else that causes UA to juggle the seats at all; you have to call in again to fix things if your companion gets booted to E-.

I've had 3 agents tell me this over the last year with my 2+ year old (non-lap). 2 of the agents over-road the message and put us in the bulkhead, one didn't. I just went on-line and changed the seats with no problem for the non-helpful agent.

I've never had an issue at the airport / onboard with sitting in the bulkhead with her (both E & F).

My only child related challenge has been a consistent understanding of where the extra O2 masks were when DD was <2.

Last year flew on a United B737-800, seat 7C, which was a non emergency row bulkhead. Sitting next to me a mom with her daughter who was around six years old.

New policy or bad information from reservations?