mherdeg

OK, this is embarrassing, but I just noticed that a flight I booked 3 days ago for four pax (adult, adult, 2 year old, infant) has issued seat assignments for the infant.

Turns out I bought a seat for the infant accidentally. This seems … worse? We're booked on narrowbody mainline aircraft with 3 seats in a row, so seating 4 pax in 3 seats is not so great. I guess the trip was $102 per person and not $136 per person??

Should I just do nothing and see whether the upgrades clear? (The adults are 1Ks and the flights are booked 1/20 in F on both sectors.) Should I try to get United to cancel the infant ticket? (This ticket carries a change fee more than the cost of the ticket and it's been > 24 hr.)

jpezaris

Sounds like you need to switch to 2 seats per row, in two pairs, hopefully one in front of the other. That's what my family does. As you point out, changing the ticket isn't cost-effective, so might as well use the space you've purchased. Presumably, you'll want to bring a car seat along with you for the infant anyway, right? Now you can bring it in the cabin with you.

aacharya

I would split each adult off with a child in your case. And I would do seating as aisle/window for each adult/child pair.

Artpen100

I 'd keep the seat for the infant and do 2 behind 2. I have gotten a single person CPU in cases like this, because of the way they break the PNR. Funny thing is, I did not have any trouble getting the person who got put in my former E seat to trade for my new F seat.

mherdeg

Thanks folks! Yeah, I think we're going to book EuroBiz (11AC, 12AC, empty 11B/12B) and split the record into two 2-pax itins (1K + toddler, 1K + seated infant) and see what happens; at least we'll get a guaranteed space for the infant car seat which she sometimes loves using. The flights are both booked 1/20 in F a month out, but anything could happen (we're transiting ORD and fully prepared to fly Y).

lehms

Good idea start them doing mileage runs early

CIT85

Be sure you sign her up for MP, might as well start earning miles.

Flyhard111

Oh, that's unfortunate, I had similar issue with my wife...

HawaiiSailor

We do the same but with both of the adults as GS we usually have one pair of seats confirmed in F through one paid ticket and a GS companion biz saver, then 2nd pair in coach on award tickets with waitlisted plus point upgrades. When only one of the 2 upgrades clears we’d also have to refuse the upgrade or give the F seat to the Y passenger, but probably lose the pluspoints (which is a calculated risk we are ok with). But when both clear, which has happened a few times recently, we then have all 4 in F but with 2 F seats non-adjacent, which doesn’t work for small children.

In one case in SFO the gate agent immediately sprang into action paging the right other passengers to ask them to swap seats for us. In another case at MCO the gate agent seemed really put off by that and said “usually people on the upgrade list aren’t so picky” and was starting to try to downgrade us back to coach. I said “don’t worry we’ll sort it out aboard” and told him other agents have dealt with it with a smile. He begrudgingly started paging the other passenger and quickly resolved it.

So my question is, what’s the right etiquette here? Don’t list for the upgrade if we’re going to be picky about sitting next to our infant? Board early and sort it out aboard? Or have the gate agent deal with it?

LondonElite

I'm probably missing something, but how will you ensure that 11B and 12B remain empty?

HawaiiSailor

You just take the middle yourself and give the interloper either the aisle or window.

LondonElite

That’s not the same thing. That’s hoping others don’t choose those seats. Maybe they do.

WineCountryUA

EuroBiz -- assuming the OP is referring here to just the European segment.
Row numbers seem high for EuroBiz segment but don't fit for TATL either

LondonElite

I don't think that's what's going on here. I think there is a hope that the middle won't be attractive to anyone, but we know how that often works out!

cur

this brings up a question:

let's say i buy two seats for myself, or an infant +1
and i do not need the second seat due to ada (ie i'm tall and skinny) or the infant will be on my lap
there is an oversell
is that an idb situation if i refuse to yield my open seat and then they put someone in it?