Infant Discount on airlines

Many of the airlines used to have 50% fares for infants - does anyone know if any airlines still do this? I'm flying alone-so will have 1 lap child and will need a seat for the other.

 

Hmmm...not many airline do. I know that US Air does not...I used to be a travel agent...and I could never find a airline that could offer a good fare. I would call around...call to the bigger airlines first...they may be the cheapest.

 

Thanks for your reply. Does anyone else have a problem with this-when you are the parent to one infant you can elect to pay for a seat or not. When flying with 2 infants alone-you don't have the choice. I think the airlines should have a discount for parents of multiples in this situation. I've emailed the major airlines about this..

 

i think it would be great if they offered a discount. Airlines are incredibly greedy unfortunatly....I just flew and purchased one seat and had the other one on my lap. The flight was on sale...and only paid 118 per person with taxes (from PA, to FL)...its the only way I could afford another seat really. I have to go back next may...but it will just be me and the baby (the new one), so the lap will be no big do fine. Good luck finding a carrier. The only ones that offer discounts for children under 12 are international flights. I am assuming this is domestic? I flew Southwest...they were cheap, but they were great to us...so accomodating. They let us pre board (even let us have one trip before we boarded to bring all of the stuff on...so we could easily get on without all those bags we carried.

let me know if you need any more advice on your trip.

 

ITA with some sort of discount for parents of twins. I did not find any discounts for infants on any of the airlines I called before booking with Jetblue for our trip last month to FL. So we flew with lap infants for the first and LAST time. I do remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when flying with Felicia under 2 that I did get half price seats for her. Ahhh the good ole days!

 

On WestJet (Canadian Airline), children up to age 2 fly free if they sit on a parent's lap (one child per parent). If you want a seat for them it's full fare. I'd suggest calling around.

 

I've taken advantage of the 1/2 fare for infants a couple times on Delta-you had to ask about it-they didn't offer it up as an option-when calling around today-it seems they've all discontinued within the past few months-I talked to a guy at Northwest who said they stopped it b/c all of the other airlines where stopping-great reasoning huh? It would be so nice if just one airline would step up and take the lead on this one-they would have my business-i'll let you know if i get a response from the emails i sent to the airlines.

 

I agree 100% the airlines should have a discount for seats for infants. I am flying solo in May from DC to Vegas and I had to pay full price for the seat for the carseat! Not happy about that one. I am kinda nervous and having second thoughts about fly with them alone(I know, too late to chicken out since I already bought the tickets), but I pray that everything will go smoothly, since we're flying around their bedtime.

 

I'm pretty sure United does not offer these any more, but I just talked to a college who flies with his daughter a lot, and he says he can sometimes get discounts on other airlines by calling. You have to ask specifically.

 

I have a feeling they don't want to encourage people to travel with more than one infant! Southwest offers discounted infant fares - I think mostly to encourage people to purchase a seat for their infant since it's considered safer for the baby to be in a seat. Now that my girls are two, we have to buy three full priced tickets when we fly in the U.S. and boy does it hurt! (When we fly to London this year though, they pay 75% of my fare - so international discounts are out there for children).

Have a great trip!

Best,
Mia

 

I think ALL airlines let you have an infant in lap (under 2) fly for free. How on earth could they justify you PAYING to have your infant under 2 on your lap? Yup, next time we fly it will be 5 full price tickets. OUCH!

 

It's full fare for any buying an additional seat. Under 2 the lap child will be free....

 

We just flew on Frontier. You need to call but they do offer a discounted rate for infants with their own seat. I think that our tickets were 5 something, the infant seat was 3 something and the taxes for the lap chld were 1 something.

I do know that we could not book the infant seat ticket online, it had to be done over the phone.

 

Even though it sucks, and I'm going to bemoan that fact when we go on vacation this summer, I see where the airlines are coming from. If I put my baby in a seat, they can't sell that seat to someone else. So why should they lose money because I brought my kid on a trip? Honestly I think a lap child should ride for free, because they aren't using any resources. But a baby in a regular seat really is not different (from their point of view) than an adult. They are in business to make money, so giving away discounts for people with twins or just babies in general doesn't make much fiscal sense for them.

 

quote:
Originally posted by betseeee:
Even though it sucks, and I'm going to bemoan that fact when we go on vacation this summer, I see where the airlines are coming from. If I put my baby in a seat, they can't sell that seat to someone else. So why should they lose money because I brought my kid on a trip? Honestly I think a lap child should ride for free, because they aren't using any resources. But a baby in a regular seat really is not different (from their point of view) than an adult. They are in business to make money, so giving away discounts for people with twins or just babies in general doesn't make much fiscal sense for them.


Well, I'm going to disagree....yes, they might lose money by offering a discounted fare...but its not like their fares are cheap anyway....and if 1 airline offered 1/2 price for an infant seat, how many of us twin moms who are having to fly by ourselves with 2 kids would go to that one carrier instead of paying full price. It is an advertising tactic...and since an infant doesn't pack a full suitcase, the plane would be able to carry more weight...so they could get money another way....ie a business that wants to ship freight on their airline.