British Airways - child turns 2 during travel

Cat212

Can anyone offer any advice please. We fly to Barcelona with British Airways before our cruise on 3rd Feb (son will be on Dad's knee, while we are away he turns 2. Our return flight from Barcelona is 14th Feb and he will be 2, therefore he has to have a seat. Ring British Airways today who say - we can't change his seat until he turns two. Meaning we will have to ring British Airways from the Mediterranean Sea to try and book a seat for him and if there are no seats - he can't fly! There state they cannot make any changes to the flight until he actually turns two.

Is that not the most ridiculous thing in the world?! Surely a huge company like British Airways have encountered this before?

leylandsunaddict

I've never heard them say they can't amend the booking until they turn two before. Personally I'd have booked a seat for an infant anyway, but there's no reason why they can't amend the inbound before you go. I think I'd ring again, and speak to someone else.

lady1964

Go,to https://www.flyertalk.com and then go on the BA Forum, I'm sure I remember this as a subject discussion, the folks there are really helpful if you can't find a thread or post already listed.

jpsartre

Cat212 wrote: »

Ring British Airways today who say - we can't change his seat until he turns two. Meaning we will have to ring British Airways from the Mediterranean Sea to try and book a seat for him and if there are no seats - he can't fly! There state they cannot make any changes to the flight until he actually turns two.

What do you mean "change his seat"? Presumably he is not yet booked? In any case, unless there are special circumstances in your case it sounds like nonsense to me. I was in the same situation last year (travelling with son who turned two while away) and I just called BA to get a ticket for my son as soon as I had booked tickets for my wife and myself. Everything was taken care of long before we flew.

jpsartre

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

Personally I'd have booked a seat for an infant anyway

You can't, the system won't let you book a passenger over the age of 2 as an infant (you have to provide the birth date).

silvercar

lady1964 wrote: »

Go,to https://www.flyertalk.com and then go on the BA Forum, I'm sure I remember this as a subject discussion, the folks there are really helpful if you can't find a thread or post already listed.

I seem to remember a story on flyer talk of BA giving a seat on the return for someone who turns 2 on a return ticket.

You can't, the system won't let you book a passenger over the age of 2 as an infant (you have to provide the birth date).

I think the sunaddict was saying he would have chosen to pay for a seat on the outbound rather than have the infant sat on a knee.

mgdavid

jpsartre wrote: »

You can't, the system won't let you book a passenger over the age of 2 as an infant (you have to provide the birth date).

you've misunderstood - think jp meant he would have booked a return seat for the child., not just the homeward leg.

leylandsunaddict

jpsartre wrote: »

You can't, the system won't let you book a passenger over the age of 2 as an infant (you have to provide the birth date).

You ring the airline to do it.

Cat212

I've rang the airline to do it, and their reply was the reason for this post. The flights are already booked. It's part of a cruise. We fly to Barcelona, then cruise from there. The journey is only 2 hrs so we wouldn't have booked a seat for him anyway.

It's only when a colleague asked if he had a seat on the return journey did I think to ring BA.

We were under the impression it would be booked as one full journey - I.e he starts the journey as an infant and is classed as an infant on return.

His date of birth was given during the booking.

Thanks Lady1964 - I'll take a look on that site.

Cat212

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

I've never heard them say they can't amend the booking until they turn two before. Personally I'd have booked a seat for an infant anyway, but there's no reason why they can't amend the inbound before you go. I think I'd ring again, and speak to someone else.

Hubby is going to do that tomorrow. I have made amendments to flights a few times before, including with BA without issue so I'm really surprised that it's supposed to be one of their policies.

jpsartre

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

You ring the airline to do it.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're suggesting the OP should do
but BA won't book an infant ticket for a 2+ year old on the phone either (by infant ticket I mean a ticket where the child travels on the lap of a parent).

The OP needs to call BA to get the child booked as an infant (lapchild) going out and as a child (with his own seat) coming back. The seat on the inbound flight is provided free of charge.