Rip off Britain? Or is it the Americans? I'm having a rant here!

tech

:mad: Okay, here's how it works.

I have 2 children. One is 14 in August and the other is 10 in August (2 days later - a busy week!)

Neither of them are legally allowed to:

Smoke
Drink
Drive
Marry
Own a home
Own a credit card
Vote


There's this little thing stopping them - it's called being a child.

When it comes to the law, Britain is very good at telling us that our children are children. They look like and behave like kids. As I'm typing this I can hear them upstairs having a fun fight. That kind of thing.

And yet....

As soon as I want to buy a holiday for them, they are all of a sudden classed as an adult.

You've probably all seen the websites that allow you to drop down different options and there are loads of them out there that will class a person of over 12 as an adult and now I'm finding that it covers my youngest child!

Remember of course that at this stage my youngest still has milk teeth.

Airline companies started it - I think. 12 years and upwards are classed as adults for flights. Why? It's crazy! Does a 12 year old take up more space on a plane than an 11 year old? No. In fact, the airlines now insist that a child over say age 18 months needs their own seat. It's a seat at the end of the day so why don't they have a seating cost for babies and a seating cost for everyone else instead of this children/adults rubbish which isn't actually true?!?!

Then the tour operators started, and again if you're over 12 you're an adult in their eyes! What a scam!!!! Then they have the cheek to give you discounted deals on some child places - which in most cases only gives you the youngest child as free/discount. In their eyes they think they can make a killing as a fair few will have the youngest as being a baby or toddler where the holiday experience is lost on them!

I've now found that the American's are in on the joke as well! I'm trying to get a holiday organised in Florida and although a lot of people rave about TCD as being cheap, it isn't when it comes to the Flextickets. As my youngest will be 10 by the time we go, he now is classed as an adult on their website. They have a nerve to say this and I would safely bet a months wages that there will be some rides he cannot go on as he's under 4 and a half foot. Do they offer discount for this? No. It in reality means someone's got to miss a ride to stay with him - again no discount for us there either.

Does anyone know of any holidays where the kids are kids up to age 16 including theme park tickets? Does such a place exist?

wacko911

Yea, and when your 16 you pay adult fares on trains and buses too.

Most rides have a parent swap in Disney/Univeral where the underage/undersize child and one parent waits while the other parent goes on the ride, then that you do a swap and go straight on to ride without having to que again.

Edna_Bucket_2

tech wrote:

...Airline companies started it - I think. 12 years and upwards are classed as adults for flights. Why? It's crazy! Does a 12 year old take up more space on a plane than an 11 year old? No. In fact, the airlines now insist that a child over say age 18 months needs their own seat. It's a seat at the end of the day so why don't they have a seating cost for babies and a seating cost for everyone else instead of this children/adults rubbish which isn't actually true?!?!

I don't want to argue with you, but let's just hold on a moment. If we follow that piece of quite reasonable logic of yours through and say that it's not a child/adult thing - it's actually a "use full size cabin seat" issue, then surely doesn't that mean that you and we are gettting a good deal from the airlines?

If you follow your argument, they should charge full cost for everyone over age of 18 months and therefore your're doing well to get it discounted to the age of 12???????

tech

true Edna - no arguements there about the discount you receive on the under 12's. My arguement is where those parents have a child aged between 12 and 16 and they're then classed as adults. I do remember a time - even though I'm only 32, when it was an age thing and also when flight discounts were for under 16's not under 12's. Some airlines do give the full capacity arguement and that's when the 'in laps' booking type came in - hitting the parents with children who could quite easily sit in a parents lap but the airline force them into a seat of their own and charge quite a difference for it. They aren't always consistent throughout the indistry either. If the airlines or tour operators bring the age down any further at existing rates then we may well see a babies/everyone else charge.

fgaughan

The only good thing is if you smoke or drink then think of the duty frees :-)

If both child are classed as adults then you can get 3 times as much duty frees

monkeyspanner

Have to agree with Edna. Look on the bright side you have had several years of opportunity for discounted fares for your kids even though they are taking the same space as adults.
Have a look around there are still anomalies its not always 12 e.g. On Bmibaby kids are 2-13 inclusive. On Ryanair its under 16 and Easyjet is under 14(although fares are usually the same as adult).
In other package brochures they are still kids up to 16 if you take a chalet/appartment holiday but not if you take a normal hotel package. Most USA hotels will allow kids up to 17/18 to share your room for the same price (if you fancy that).

se999

Sorry, but it's not just the travel industry. Our children were tall for their age, so Junior school uniforms meant paying VAT on their clothes as they were adult sizes! The first time this happened was when the eldest was 8!!

On the travel front, we recently stayed at a hotel in Finland, where they had a height check board at breakfast, children under that height were free, over that height paid the adult breakfast rate!!

I do think rules that are 'age' specific are at least consistent to all people, unlike height and size specific rules, although I do understand that for theme parks etc the height rules are presumably for safety reasons on individual rides.

in_my_wellies

My son went from adult (age 12, American Airlines) to child (age 14, Canada 2000) to adult (age 15, Air France) to child again when we flew the day before he was 16 - and they let him come back as a child. (can't remember who with)

BMIbaby is 13 I think.

They do vary so keep looking and have a lovely time. I'd love to go to DL but OH wont, not even to Paris, not even for a day. Lucky you!!

LesD

'Kids' under 18 stay free in parents rooms at Holiday Inn!

'Kids' under 13 eat free too.

But, as for flights, why should there be any difference if a seat is taken no matter what the age? The only logical reason would be to fill empty seats. If the airline can fill them with full fare passengers, why should it discount for kids?

in_my_wellies

I see your point LesD. I think you have answered it. Families could not afford to pay full price for all the children so they have to offer an insentive to get them to go. They know how many of each they can sell and set the age limit accordingly. It's up to use to do our research.

All mine are adults this year, but none are earning yet. Any hints as to how to convince them all that they really do want one more 'bucket and spade' holiday?

Cardew

A discount for children, pensioners, servicemen etc etc is a marketing exercise and nothing to do social justice! and neither should it be.