erwin123

received eticket today for the lap child about 2 months after booking
also, the miles for mine and my partners booking are now subtracted from my account
all looks ok on SQ website, i see all 3 etickets and sq says ok on all three
was planning to cancel this later this year, kind a good that i didn’t do that yet (revenue ticket for changeable ticket is now about 500 usd)

TOMFORD

I booked an UA award for ZRH-MUC-USA on LX/LH and added a lap infant. UA charged me $250. Is that right? Should the fee be charged by the operating carrier or by UA?

WineCountryUA

By the ticketing airline and 10% of the present equivalent cash fare.

GUWonder

I get Swiss to do the lap child tickets when the already booked adult is flying LX/LX-LH on award tickets issued by UA, AV and other non-LH Group carriers. The airline issuing the lap-child ticket is the one that charges me for the lap-child tickets, and that is regardless of which partner carrier issued the adult award ticket.

TOMFORD

Thanks, should I cancel and rebook my current flights for only the adults, and then call LX/LH to add the lap infant?

GUWonder

Sounds like unnecessary work at this point when you already have a lap child ticket issued for the relevant flights, especially if you’re ok with the price of the lap child ticket, have the lap child ticket number and can validate that the lap-child ticket details are correct and in alignment with the accompanying adult’s booked-and-ticketed flight details. At most, at this point, my recommendation would be to call up Swiss and make sure that they have the lap child noted there with an accompanying ticket number and ask that they look at it to see that lap child booking and lap child ticket is ok.

Sometimes the price that LX wants for the lap child ticket is different than what UA wants to issue the lap child ticket, so I sometimes call or go around to fish for a better price for the lap child tickets. But once the lap-child ticket is issued and I can see it is issued properly to cover the relevant segments for the separately ticketed accompanying adult, I would just leave it as is unless there is a big price discrepancy.

The lap-child ticketing carrier is more likely to mess things up when it’s not the operating carrier for the accompanying adult’s tickets than when the lap-child ticketing carrier is the operating carrier, so make sure to have the lap child ticket number and details and check those are done right to align with the adult’s flight booking.

TOMFORD

Ah okay, I misunderstood you. I thought I had to get the operating carriers to issue the ticket. I don't mind the $250 paid to UA if it means I don't have to spend an hour on the phone with LX/LH.

GUWonder

To minimize the odds of a hassle/delay at check-in due to lap-child ticketing/booking, I would call up LX anyway to make sure LX have the lap child booking noted, a lap child ticket recorded in the Swiss PNR and can see that the UA-issued lap child ticket covers the relevant flights for the accompanying adult. Better done over the phone in advance than have a surprise delay at the airport.

WineCountryUA

No, not if you have tickets. And yes check if the operating carriers see all the tickets.

Believe the other poster was suggesting if you had not got the lapchild tickets yet, an alternative is getting them thru the operating carrier, especially if significant cheaper. It can go either way. If using multiple carriers that can be a pain and the issuing carrier can make it is one stop situation.

The truth in a multi-carrier situation, lapchild on award needs to be double and triple check.

manodeep

Is the $250 cap on UA for adding a lap infant to an award ticket still in place (or any official UA page that states this fare cap)? I booked two award tickets (separate PNRs, same itin EWR-LAX-MEL, with the LAX-MEL leg in Premium Plus) for my infant and I for travel in early Jan. Both flight segments are on UA metal and I bought the tickets with UA miles (separate accounts - hence the two PNRs)

My ticket has been upgraded to business on the LAX-MEL segment (using GS plus points) while the infant is still back in Premium Plus (UA did not allow plus points to be applied online). I plan to travel together with the infant - so I called the Premier Desk to add a lap infant and got a quote of nearly $1500. I tried to explain to the premier desk phone agents the $250 fare cap for lap infants, and that even when I attempt to book a new J award ticket today, the infant fare is quoted as $250 + taxes, but that went nowhere.

I have now contacted UA over Twitter/X. Any other tips or suggestions will be much appreciated. In case it matters, I am UA silver now.

Lux Flyer

So it's two different things. Award fares have flat rate pricing for lap infant based on IATA areas travelled/cabin. Upgrades don't fall under the flat rate award pricing, but still use 10% of the current day fare which is probably why you were quoted the $1500 amount, because it's no longer pricing based on you being on an award fare but due to being an international upgrade.

Truthfully, it's probably a grey area that wasn't accounted for in the policy since upgraded international awards are a relatively rare thing to encounter.

manodeep

Thanks! Yeah seems to be a grey area and I can see both interpretations.

Twitter/X United support came through and the lap infant now has a ticket for about $275 total - which is likely $250 + taxes. Feel like I dodged a very expensive bullet here

erwin123

Took this flight and everything was ok, no problems with the ticket
so , I guess this does work with united , you just need to have some patience to get the infant ticket

marks88

For UA 016 ticket using miles for LH J or F (I or O fare class - outright award, no upgrade), has anyone been able to get UA to price out lap infant? Am in particular thinking of F (O). Hope that’s capped at $250+taxes. Haven’t tried yet but want to avoid switching last minute (when LH F opens up) only to be unpleasantly surprised.

FWIW, I was quoted $278 for IAH-AMS in J on UA (JN ticket for 175k miles - ouch - cash equivalent $4-5k), and agent referred to $250 cap - so the policy is still in place for UA 016 tix/UA operating carrier at least.

marks88

UPDATE: did dummy F booking on LH using UA miles, and UA correctly added lap infant for 0 additional miles + $250 (plus taxes).