Look up “absurd” in the dictionary, and you ought to find Lily Poon’s incomprehensible ticketing experience with United Airlines. The carrier charged her just $60 for her ticket. But it wanted more than 20 times that amount for her infant son’s fare.
How did it come to that?
Poon redeemed frequent flier miles for two business class tickets from Denver to Hong Kong. The total cost to her was $60 per ticket. United wanted $1,285 — 10 percent of the business class fare — for the lap child.
The Infant will be sitting on my lap. Unless the flight attendant is going to change his diaper and the airline will provide him formula and baby food, there is no way they can justify charging me $1,285 for a flight. An economy ticket for an adult is $1,300.
I have asked the airline if I could buy him an economy ticket and let him fly in my lap in business, they said no. If they did let me do that, then I could at least check two more pieces of luggage. I have tried to contact customer service, I get routed back to India. I have sent an email, no response.
Now, Poon isn’t just some tourist. She’s been a United frequent flier for two decades. I suggested she contact someone at a higher level at United, which she did.
A United representative called her a day later and reiterated its “no.”
This is a policy they’ve had in place that they will charge 10 percent of whatever cabin that the parents are in. She is not willing to budge as this is “not negotiable” and it is what it is.
She did say that she agrees that this is strange but that the policy has been in effect for a very long time.
United offered Poon a $300 voucher to “offset the cost” of baby’s ticket. But that’s not enough for Poon.
You don’t need me to tell you that this pricing policy is a little ridiculous. At the very least, United could have offered the Poons an option of cashing in some miles to let baby fly.
As it stands now, Poon won’t travel with her son. It’s too expensive.
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Something I don’t see touched on is insurance. I wonder if the additional cost is used to cover (among other things) insuring the additional passenger. I know they purchase an insurance on each passenger to pay off costs should the plane crash. I don’t know numbers (could be very cheap) but I imagine the additional costs are things like international tax and various other things. Now has for not allowing frequent flier miles to pay for the ticket, that’s not right.
Regarding the earplugs… if they’ll cancel out noise well enough to allow me to sleep through a baby shrieking, then they’ll also allow me to sleep through any crew announcements. If everyone did that, the FAs would have to manually shake everyone awake in an emergency. There are obvious safety issues, and I’m not going to functionally deafen myself just to enable some DNA donor to avoid responsibility for quieting the child they insisted on bringing along. I shouldn’t have to, and I can’t believe anyone’s seriously suggesting it.
(If you accept that it’s your responsibility to keep your kids from disturbing other passengers, then congratulations – you’re a parent, not a DNA donor, and that comment was not directed at you.)
My opinion on children aside…
If your kid is small enough to sit on your lap for 12 hours, what is the point of taking him to Hong Kong in the first place? He’s not going to remember it, it’s not going to excite him, and you’ll have to lug him and his stroller around everywhere, planning your trip around HIS needs.
If it’s so relatives/friends can meet him, believe me, they’re not going to care after about 15 minutes, so your 12 hours of misery is all for naught.
I don’t get it. Just leave him at home with a babysitter…he’ll be just as happy.
I made a comment earlier in this thread in which I was of the opinion that kids on flights suck and the passengers around the kid should be given rewards. I still feel that way but think that some people are not seeing what the airlines have done with “classes”.
Business class isn’t meant exclusively for business people. It’s a class created by airlines so that they can offer slightly more room and get an exponentially higher fare. If they wanted to, they could have called it first class silver and made the real first class first class platinum or something like that. It’s all in the marketing. As others said, it’s a public flight and everyone who pays for a ticket in that area has just as much of a right to a seat as you do. Do you really think you are more important than anyone else because you paid extra to get to the same place that I did??
I don’t think having a kid on your lap for 12 hours is a good thing, but it’s a choice. What i really wonder about though is how does the FAA justify making everyone buckle up then allow an infant to just sit on someone’s lap?
I also now have to agree that there are many ways in which someone could be in comfort on a plane. Earplugs, headphones or a number of other things can be used. people use ipods all the time and the girls and guys just wake them up when the flight is over. I’ve seen it time and time again. To say that by using one of the methods described by others will not allow you to hear something is a BS arguement. (with the cabin noise going on, you can rarely understand what is being said anyway.)
Why not change the policy to charge based on the kid’s behavior (based on votes from passengers in adjacent rows). Quiet baby – no charge; fussy baby – 50% charge; crying baby – 100% charge; parent who snaps at kids shushing baby – 200% charge. Problem solved.
I thought the point of earplugs was to not allow you to hear something. If it’s not… what is it?
Heh, and potentially create a new problem: airline sued for charging problem passenger – 99% (if not 100) charge. :P
I don’t think you guys realize that flying business means your seat lies flat 180degrees. Which means she probably won’t be having the baby in her lap the entire trip. Also bassinets are available for international flights for the child. So technically the baby isn’t a “lap child.” In Business they offer noise cancellation headphones and lots of alcohol.
She is being smart by using her miles. $26k tickets for 180k miles. If she purchased 3 economy tickets she’s only getting $4500 tickets for her miles. Suck it up and pay $1300! Small trade off for a comfortable flight.
There are more annoying adult passengers on the flights than screaming baby/kids. Haven’t you sat next to someone that wants to make small talk during the entire flight?
As a “FORMER” elite traveler with United, I can assure everybody that United does not give a hoot about it’s loyal, frequent, elite travelers. And try talking to a customer service rep whose Indian accent is so bad you can understand every other word at best. United recently got out of bankruptcy……and at the rate they are going it won’t be long before they’re back in it. Loyalty works both ways.
I’ve never seen an adult passenger cause anywhere near the disturbance to others as even a relatively well-behaved baby or small child. One who did would (and should) find the police waiting for them at their destination. Review the things people have been arrested for doing on a flight if you don’t believe me.
Telling someone that they should temporarily deafen themselves and drink enough alcohol to pass out is not a reasonable solution. Whether it would work or not is beside the point (though I can think of plenty of reasons why it wouldn’t) – parents are not ENTITLED to expect people to do that just so they don’t have to actually parent their child.
But now I guess there’s a use for those airline pillows – ‘parents’ should just tell the person in front of them to put them between themselves and the seat back… that’s so much easier than teaching your child not to kick seats.
@ the anti-child crowd
Whether or not children cause a distrubance has nothing to do with the conversation at hand. A person with enough $$$ can sit their butt and their baby’s butt whereever they please. Don’t act like United is trying to “shield” the bussiness passengers.They just want you to dish out as much bank as possible. If you want to talk about how parents should stay at home with their children until the kid is old enough to vote, I believe Chris has another post on his site (Ban Babies on Board) where you can let all those frustrations out. And no, I don’t have a kid and yes I’ve sat next to babies who have screamed through flights and 2 year olds who read picture books and napped through flights.
The problem here is that Ms. Poon was (a) given contridictory information and (b) even when it was pointed out that the CS or ticket agent handling the sale may have made a mistake United stuck to their guns and charged her the absolute highest ticket price for a seat that going to be shared. Allowing her to use additional miles or allowing her to buy a full priced Econo ticket were reasonable compromises. Many other businesses would admit to their inital error and work with their customer to find a comprimise at the very least. its nice to know you can’t trust what a United ticket agent says.
BRAVO UNITED! Anything to keep a “lap” child off the plane is welcome. Can you imagine being stuck on a flight to ASIA with this selfish woman!?!?!?
As a mother of a 1 1/2 year old, I can tell you that whenever my Mommy friends and I have a flight, we are nervous about how the flight will be. We worry about keeping the baby occupied so that it won’t disturb others. It is mortifying when the baby is screaming and you’re trying everything to quiet the baby down. But, if my mother lives in England, then I am bringing my baby to England! My child won’t remember the trip but my mother will! We’ve all spent a lot of money on our tickets. Please have some compassion. No one wants to sit next to the baby. We get it. Just know that we want the flight to be over faster than you do! BTW – I’ve taken my son on 6 flights and he’s never caused even slight disturbance. I think between 1-2 years old might be the hardest, because they’re walking and cannot talk to express their needs. Again…a little compassion please.
we flew. the trip was fine. we received many compliments from the flight crew that he was a good baby. traveling with a child is all about being prepared and being one step ahead of his needs. to all the haters, boo!
United is supposedly refunding me some of the airfare since it dropped. I still think it’s bogus they charged me 10% of 12k fare when booked through their sites, would have only cost 5k.
Not flying UA to HK ever again. Air Canada offers 3 pcs of luggage at 50lbs a piece, child gets 2 pc at 50lbs regardless if he/she has a ticket.
Am I the only one stunned that flying from Denver to Hong Kong costs $12,800 by this calculation?
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