Checks on infant flight seat

ianeverton

Does anyone know or have experience off the checks that are made over the age of the child when you book an infant on a flight?

An infant is classed as under 2 years and will travel on an adults lap. However my daughter was born 3 months premature so is smaller than her age suggests and will be just over 2 when we fly.

To travel as an infant costs £14.50 to travel as a child will cost £200.

My question is, if i book an infant ticket will they check her age at check in and then refuse to allow her to travel as an infant?

And in all honesty as she is small she probably wouldnt be any good in her own seat.

Thanks for any help.

pboae

Her age will be on her passport, and they are bound to check it.

EDIT: or rather her DOB will be on the passport, but it amounts to the same thing.

ianeverton

I do appreciate that they could check her age from her passport, i was hoping someone from a check in desk might be able to inform me as to wether they do check as a matter of course.

I have just read on easyjets website that you can actually take a child seat on the plane so the issue of her sitting on her own in a seat isnt a problem.

It is annoying that they use an arbitary thing like age instead of height, if the issue is to determine wether a child can sit on their parents lap,to insist you purchase a full price ticket.

Just as an aside 2 weeks ago mytravel allowed my wife fly to Spain and back a week later although her passport expired in January, so it just shows that rules can be allowed to be broken. A big thankyou to mytravel by the way.

i_love_it

A check will (should) be made at check in, you will be taking a huge risk for it to be overlooked, a risk not worth taking imo, infant/child size does vary hugely, but they have to have a cut off point somewhere. Special allowance can be made for disability, ie, where the child cannot be supported in own seat, this would of course require contacting the airline and medical document, for a phisically well child of two, size alone will not allow for special arrangement.

I work as cabin crew, ages are often checked on board also, before giving lap belt extentions when carring out head counts, crew get a split figure of passengers and infant on lap to check before departure.

conradmum

Sorry, but, having travelled many times with a child below and above 2 years of age I can tell you they always check the child's age. It would be great if we all had to pay by height and weight as I am 5' 2" and weigh 8 stone and could save a fortune!:rotfl:
Regarding your wife's experience of travelling to Spain on an expired passport, this happened to us too. My son's passport was expired but the check-in clerk said there was a special agreement between Britain and Spain about this - we were very lucky as his supervisor wasn't aware of this and had to go and look it up. So I don't think any rules were broken then.

windowshopping

used to work as check in at lpl airport. sorry but no chance! we,as check in staff would end up in more trouble than you if we overlooked it,besides if it was possible then every tom,!!!!!! and harry would do it!
you could take the chance but if you check in on the day, when not if its discovered they'd make you purchase an extra seat and an extorniote price but................if the flight is full and no empty seats then you wouldn't be able to travel at all!

BernadetteN

I recently had the reverse problem.

My youngest becomes 2 years old between connecting flights from London to Moscow and could not get an internet site to sell me a plane ticket for the youngest as she changes from 1 to 2 during the journey and will be 2 on the way back. I had to phone the check-in staff at the airport (Swiss at London City) to ask how I could buy a seat ticket for a 1 year old and the suggestion was to change her age on the booking by a day to make her 2 years old at the beginning of the outward flight. This worked in so much as the internet site finally sold me a ticket. The problem left was that the date of birth in the passport now differs from the date of birth on the booking. I asked the consequences of this and was told for all INFANT BOOKINGS there is a check with the dates of birth as many people try to "pull off" their 2 and 3 year olds as under 2s and that it's not something you can get away with, whereas because my 2 year old has a full price seat ticket, the wrong date of birth on booking is irrelevant. The Swiss check-in staff member said there are so many people who lie about the age of their children in order to get cheaper tickets so they are trained to always check dates of birth on booking against dates of birth on passports and can often lead to whole families being unable to travel as they have no funds to pay for an extra seat once they are found out or there are no seats left to sell.

You can console yourself that it is far safer to have a 2 year old of any size in a seat than have them on your lap. There are several links on the internet to approved car seats that you can take on aircraft for your child's size and age and that is the safest way for them to travel.

richardw

ianeverton wrote: »

if i book an infant ticket will they check her age at check in and then refuse to allow her to travel as an infant?

Yes and they may also cancel your ticket, read all the terms and conditions.