Babies the most profitable segment at UAL?
 

Lapseats have to be the most profitable business segment at United. How about paying $1100 to fly SFO-Rome, but you don't get a seat, a meal, or frequent flyer miles.

How about $1100 for 14lb package?

My wife and I recently flew SFO-Rome business class on United. We paid $3000 each for the business class tickets. I booked them online at UAL.com. We were traveling with our four month old baby and United's website does not allow you to book infant lapseats, so I phoned into thier customer support desk about a week later. I was told that the lapfare would be $1100! They normally charge 10% of your ticket price for international flights for a lapfare, but I was told that I would be charged 10% of a full fare business class ticket, which was $11,000 (rather than $300 which was 10% of my fare)

I told them that I had flown 990,000 miles on United. They were very unimpressed. I guess most of their passengers fly a million miles on them.

I called back to United 3 times over two weeks, hoping to get a supervisor who thought that charging $1100 for a 14lb infant lap fare was unreasonable. Nope, all supervisors said, we can't help you, it is a pricing desk decision. I asked to talk to someone at pricing desk, they said it was not possible.

So, we flew to Rome, our flight was late, United lost our luggage for 48 hours just to make the experience more pleasurable.

After we returned, I actually got someone in online customer service to send me a note that we were overcharged by $700, ($1100-$300 that we should have been charged) but he told me that I would have to get the money from refunds. The refund desk continues to stonewall me.. so now, even though I have shown tremendous loyalty to United and flown nearly a million miles on them, I chose to avoid flying on United unless absolutely necessary. Thier lack of customer service has already cost them more than $18,000 for tickets on flights that I would have previously travelled UAL.

Anyone had any similar experiences regarding Lapfares and UAL?

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

The Community forum is primarily for get togethers among the members here at FT. Since this really isn't related (unless we want to have a Lapchild DO?), I'm going to toss this hot potato over to the UA forum.

If you have followed this link from Community, you will now find yourself in the United Mileage Plus forum (with the path indicated at the top of your FT toolbar). Please continue to follow it there.

- techgirl
Community co-moderator

The agents were unfortunately correct. You were on a Z fare, and UA does not publish Z infant fares. However...the cheapest SFO-FCO infant fare in C is currently $816 roundtrip. It's possible fares were higher when you traveled so I wouldn't hold on to that figure.

I hope that's now really how you view your baby.

I'm sorry you had such an experience, but the rules are pretty clear on how infant fares work. In a way, I actually find it a bit unusual (but encouraging) that United is being consistent here - they are not on many issues (which is why the FT mantra is - if you don't get the answer you want, call back). Not all airlines fit all situations - if you find another airline that has a better policy for your situation, you really should fly with them. It's United's loss, but they can't be all things to all people.

This thread on refunds may be useful in your situation.

You can't tell me that $1100 is an outrageous price to pay for carrying your kid on your lap for a flight??? My solution: pay for a Y seat and then stick the infant seat in it for take off and landing. See what the FAs do when they try to tell you to take your kid to the back for their ride next to some stranger.

Mrs. laser and I did the same thing with our child several years ago when our child was about 6 months old. We took a trip to Europe with our child in our lap. And yes, we had to pay 10% of the full fare for our child, not 10% of the price we paid for our discounted tickets. The rules are quite clear on this.

We did take full advantage of the bassinet attached to the bulkhead as our child basically slept the whole way, much to the relief of everyone around us. :) Also, the FAs were great and often stopped by to check on us and our child. So, I have no complaints about paying the 10% of full fare for a lap child and think it should remain that way.

Anyone find it strange that the OP "recently flew SFO-Rome business class on United" even though UA hasn't flown there in quite awhile and isn't scheduled to start up service from IAD for several months?

Codeshare with LH you say? Then why did the OP say that UA lost his luggage?

Further, the lowest discounted UB fare is over $8,000. Full fare UE on the other hand is about $2,800.

Lapfare not Infant Fare..
 

Not infant fare.. Lapfare. Infant fare gets their own seat. Lapfare gets a bassinet if you are lucky otherwise you just get your lap. In our case the bassinet was filthy and broken, so we didn't even get that.

Nice to hear from a company spokesperson.

Sfo-rome
 

We flew SFO Rome and bounced thru ORD. Luggage was lost at ORD.

It would be nice if United spent more money on customer service rather than PR people employed by United surfing this site stating that they really don't think that they paid enough fare. In our case, the FA were also nice, but frankly after flying more than 40 flight segments with children under the age of two on a variety of airlines domestically and internationally, I have yet to have a bad experience with a FA. We told all of the FA's on our flight legs about paying $1100 for our lapfare. All told us that they thought it was ridiculous.

:td: :td: :td: :td: :td:

Don't accuse people of being what thye are not. Not everyone is going to share your view.

You should have called and arranged what the price was before you bought. This is standard United policy. is it ridiculous? Maybe. But don't attack people that don't agree with you.

^.

FWIW I recall the lap fare being 10% of the full fare ticket.

How rude :rolleyes: :td: :td: :td: