tht

Mrs. tht is due in April and I am looking to book a trip for us to take him to LHR at Xmas. Award flights should start to open pup soon around that period.

We already have another mini aged 2-4, so we will be booking 3 seats and then 1 baby in arms. Row 8 DEF (with basinet) if its 757, and 16 DEF (with basinet) if its a 767.

This worked fine for baby 1. I will need the baby on the booking to get the blocked seats by the basinet.

I googled and saw some articles saying estimated birthday and name if know, since I am a 1K, can i just book with estimate and change later since I have waived fees, I assume baby in arms is not capacity controlled for awards (since no seat)? I want to book this as a base case so we have seats (I also like the flexibility of being able to change / cancel awards fro free when flying with young kids as they can get sick and plans change) .

My other though is that I have 6 GPU's that need to be burned, and since I fly paid business and UA wont let me GPU to GF on a Z fare I don't want them to go to waste. I recall that the old CO has basinets in the front row on the 757 and somewhere near the back on the 767 in business.

Assuming I could find UG availability and book 3 qualifying fares in economy am I right in thinking I only need 6 GPU's for 3 seats and the baby in arms just pays the tax?

Anyone have any recent experience of doing either of these, or a better plan?

emcampbe

LHR is international. Baby pays 10% of the fare on international. The exception is Canada/Mexico, which only pays tax (Since I travel to Canada a lot, with baby closely approaching 2, I can confirm that without a seat, taxes for her have been ~17.50).

It's based on the cost at time of purchase, so take that into account when booking (It's early now for Dec., usually I book as soon as I know, since price tends to go up closer to travel, but I usually book 2 months or so out). Not sure if LHR APD is charged on infants. Not sure how change fees are levied on lap infant tickets, but a name change would probably require a cancel/rebook. I'd bet its either free (regardless of if adult is on award), or its some cost (It doesn't seem like it should be full change fee, but who knows?). Either way, at time of any change, you'd be charged whatever 10% of the fare is at the time - if upgraded by then, will definitely be of lowest Polaris fare.

As for other charges for lap baby, there is another thread somewhere where folks swear the charge is done by price at time of booking, and there is no extra charge if upgraded afterwards. Others have sworn agents insisting on 10% of the biz fare for upgrade. I've never tried, so don't know which is supposed to be correct, and which is typical, however, I'm sure there are those with actual experience on this.

aacharya

Could also consider "buying" the baby a seat for now, thus allowing access to bassinet. And then fixing the name when born, and/or cancelling seat and adding baby at that time.

As you're 1K, I'd book the award, in case the price of the seat goes up later.

tht

Thanks, the issue with that is both planes are a row of 3 seats, so that would mean sitting in different rows, as its tht, mrs tht, toddler tht and new baby tht.

I feel like the whole row plus bassinet will work (we did not use it last time but the bulkhead is a good place to sit anyway.

Plan is to book award flights as soon as they open up for dates over xmas and then I can look at revenue/GPU seats later, and still have the award as a backstop if nothing better shows up.

aacharya

I am thinking, if as follows:

ABC DEF GHI

C: THT, D: baby THT, E toddler THT, F wife THT.

For now and then adjust as needed. If you cancel out baby THT later, you take baby THT's seat.

I'm just thinking that the taxes and fees are high to from LHR - so what are you saving with the 10% approach versus miles.

sinoflyer

If you are planning to upgrade, be advised that the infant ticket will need to be rebooked as 10% of the J fare at the time of booking.

tht

Had not thought of it like that, tried a dummy booking for 2 weeks earlier:

1 child (2-4) 60,000 miles
2 adults (18-64) 120,000 miles
1 infant (under 2) - in adult’s lap $11.00
Taxes and fees $509.44
Total 180,000 miles
+ $520.44

1 child (2-4) 60,000 miles
1 infant (under 2) - reserved seat 60,000 miles
2 adults (18-64) 120,000 miles
Taxes and fees $473.44
Total 240,000 miles
+ $473.44

Only seems to be $45 cheaper, but 60,000 miles more.

Guess i will need to wait till next week to see if they open up saver awards and then compare above. assuming I need to book 2 one way tickets, to get seats as soon as they open up.

was also considering doing my ticket as a revenue one (need some UA BIS to get to 1MM, but i guess that runs a higher risk of being split up).

Understood, would have to look at the average total cost per person to see if its still a good deal across the 10% and 3 Y tickets + 6 GPU.

Xmas is really the only time I even consider using miles for Y flights, but the prices jump so much they are a good alternative.

aacharya

Surprised - I thought there was an APD - oh perhaps children are waived now.

No issue if you book revenue for you and miles for them. Seats will stick - and if they don't, can fix in a few - but harder to get free bags and all.

WineCountryUA

APD are now waived for those under 16.

FlyerGirl77

Hi all,

LH and United cannot book a ticket for our currently unborn second child. However, we do not want to wait until the child is born.

As we currently do not know name, gender and obviously not DOB, there's nothing they can do for us. However, what if we "faked" all of this and just typed in whatever we expect.

Can we fix the ticket later and say we just made a mistake? Or is this useless?

Thanks
Flyergirl77

mahasamatman

Changing the passenger on a reservation is non-trivial and can cost as much as the ticket did in the first place, and booking for a non-existent person will raise many red flags with the airlines and the authorities. You're better off just waiting to book the infant.

acesflyerSFO

Since the baby is most likely going to travel as an infant you can buy their ticket even on the day of the departure and pay 10% off the corresponding adult fare that The traveling adult has paid.

I wouldn't worry about purchasing the infant ticket early.

TA

What does it matter what the name on the ticket is? Infants don't have to have ID or proof of anything anyway.

correction - international might be a problem.

Hipplewm

That is only for IIA right? If they want a seat and a baby seat buckled in and stuff, they need a real seat with a real ticket I think.

CaptainMiles

Have you picked out male and female names yet? If so, consider purchasing two refundable infant tickets, and cancel the one you won't use.