Comments on: Absurd: your airline ticket costs $60; your baby’s ticket is $1,280

By: greg hostern

greg hostern — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:48:00 +0000

I find it absurd as well that they would want to charge you so much more for Business Class Tickets for your infant. I think they should just let your child fly for free. Every other airlines does it.

By: Bruce Burger

Bruce Burger — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:05:00 +0000

United did this to me in 1998, but the charge was just $600 (SEA-CDG) and they gave me a voucher for the full amount when I complained. My argument was/is that they have every right to charge this fee (since they disclose it), but the goal of a frequent flier program should be to make customers happy — which means not adding on fees way out of proportion to the airline’s cost. The spirit of the 10% fee would be satisfied by letting you get a child’s ticket for 10% of the miles you used for the adult’s ticket. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for United to change this policy.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:06:00 +0000

You’re paying the money for a certain environment – a quieter one – so just by virtue of paying doesn’t mean you should be allowed to ruin that environment.

Should people be allowed turn on their ghetto blaster on a plane? Of course not.

Many children and babies are well behaved, but the problem is that there’s no way to filter the noisy ones from the not so noisy ones.

BC Ferries has a business lounge on their boats where you pay extra and there are no kids allowed. It is about selling a quiet environment to whose who are willing to pay for it.

Why do so many people with kids fail to understand this reasoning?

I was recently on a transatlantic flight in economy class. Two seats behind me was a family with TWO noisy children. The noisiest and most disruptive was the five year old. It is difficult to imagine from how he was acting that there was anything other than poor parenting that was responsible for it. The poor parenting continued through the flight. The five year old in particularly, thought his incessant loud yelling disrupted at least the 200 people in that section for more than 7 hours out of the 9 hour flight.

The two year old wasn’t very good either, but paled in comparision to the five year old.

The point is that this family of five did not have the right to disrupt over 200 people for over 7 hours.

“noise cancelling” headphones did not help. This kid was louder than that.

It is incidents like this, and the fact that airlines don’t do anything about it that sours people against babies on airplanes.

By offering an “out” such as a quiet business class, there would be a way to avoid this. However, as long as airlines allow anyone who pays to get into “business” class…and note it is called “business” class, not “more expensive” class or “pay more money” class, it is called business class.

I think that it is perfectly reasonable to ban anyone under 15 from business class. I also think that it is perfectly reasonable to have a code of conduct in business class so that adults who choose to be disruptive are brought into line.

However, I can tell you from several hundred thousand miles of travel that by far the most disruptive thing has been kids and or babies. Not “all that other stuff”.

I’m glad Lily’s baby was good. However, there was no way to tell that, sort of like having a hand grenade beside you and then being thankful that it didn’t go off.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:36:00 +0000

It is mean of the parents to take a baby into business class.

Selfish is going into a cabin where people have paid extra and bringing a baby in to make noise.

I wouldn’t do that to someone. That’s the big problem with a lot of parents, is that they turn things around.

Going into a place where people pay extra for quiet, and ruining that enbvironement is selfish indeed…

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Sue, Business class is sold on the basis of being able to get rest and is supposed to be the “way” to avoid unnneccesary noise.

Although people do have rights, it is difficult to understand why one would pay $12000 for a ticket for peace and quiet, and then have something disruptive in there.
Sometimes, the ticket is purchased because the person has to get somewhere. They need to sleep on the plane so they don’t die when they are driving the next day. That’s right, if people don’t sleep and they have to drive, then sometimes they die. Or they have to lose an extra day while they get sleep. If someone is going to fix something that’s very expensive downtime wise, they need to be awake to do it. There are all sorts of reasons to fly business class that people don’t consider. And you shouldn’t have to go to the extent of chartering a plane to do that. Not a very environmentally friendly solution, is it…

They have cell phone free zones in lounges, there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a child free area on a plane.

It is a fair and equitable way to deal with it. Allowing babies anywhere and everywhere is NOT fair and equitable.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:24:00 +0000

It is regrettable that your grandmother didn’t get to see you, but my take on babies on flights is still exactly the same…keep ‘em off. And if you do allow them on, NOT in business class. It isn’t the place.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Carol, cell phones are not allowed on flights and babies are terribly disruptive. Been there, done that. The discussion is about babies, not comparing them to other things. Imagine if they had loud rock music in the plane. Imagine if they had people yelling on the plane. Imagine if they let you open the windows on the plane.

The only thing I am imagining is that babies don’t know any better, they cry. Business class is sold on the basis of extra quiet and extra comfort. Nothing should be in there that changes that. People pay a lot of money to go in business class so they can work right away when they arrive.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:19:00 +0000

I see this now and I am 1000% behind United. People in that business class section either paid in money or in points to have an extra measure of quiet. Babies should NOT be allowed in business class under any circumstances, particularly on a flight that long. All of the things the Airlines advertise about why to fly in business class are pretty much negated when babies and small children are on board.

By: Linda Bator

Linda Bator — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:18:00 +0000

They will still hit her with the charge, and if the plane is heavy weight, they can refuse to board beacuse you have to book infants travelling internationally in ADVANCE.

By: Linda Bator

Linda Bator — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:17:00 +0000

ALL international flights charge for an infant – this is nothing new, and not United only.

By: Robertiluvu

Robertiluvu — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:55:00 +0000

what are u an idiot. How are people supposed to get anywhere if they are not allowed to take babies on a plane for heaven sakes. You need to get real here. You should not fly yourself it would do so many people a big favor having a crab like you sitting next to them on a plane. I definitley would not want to sit by a scrooge like you ever.

By: Matthew Holt

Matthew Holt — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 06:13:19 +0000

This just happened to me. The assholes at American want $600 for my infant kid to be in my lap for a one way business class fare that cost me 100K FF miles. For a kid to see her grandfather for perhaps the first & last time

They wont let me pay in miles–why wont they let me pay 10K miles?

They wont let me pay 10% of even the economy fare.

They want 10% of a $5,000 fare. For ZERO services they’ll be supplying to the kid. EXACTLY THE SAME COST TO THEM if the kid and me were in economy; and the fare was 10% of the $600 it cost

This is pure theft.

By: nancy

nancy — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 09:15:46 +0000

My husband is a 747 Captain that flies to Asia, Australia & Europe. These flights are 12, 14 or more hours. I go along & am lucky to be able to fly 1st or business quite a bit. I was on a flight with a crying baby in business on the way to Hong Kong (14 hours). He screamed for a long time…a couple of hours. He was seated in the front of the business class facing the first class & right on the aisle…so his crying was heard by everyone in the lower level of business & first class. Many of the passengers were upset & I could understand that. He was really loud. These passengers had paid high fees so that they could go to work as soon as they got to their destination, planning to sleep on the plane. After a few hours of that, the flight attendant somehow rearranged some of the business passengers so that the child & mother were moved into a different business seat. This move helped to isolate the child a bit & it was not as loud so others could sleep.
I traveled with my children (coach – before my husband worked for an airline) – he had been gone for several months -so I took our children & went where he was – he hadn’t seen his children for 4 months & his daughter was only a month old when he had to deploy. For some reason, my kids were not noisy at all & people even commented that they didn’t even know they were there. BUT I had friends who traveled with theirs to the same destination in Italy. Some of their children were screamers…However, one mother used Benadryl….I am not condoning the use of this & never used it myself. But she said this helped clear her children’s ears & made them sleep through the flight. Sometimes, their ears do not clear (as another person stated). If they are nursing babies, nurse them, give them a bottle or a pacifier to suck on during take-off & landiing…sometimes this helps. If they are older, give them something to chew on…gummy candy, gum, crackers…so their chewing might help them clear their ears.
Another thing…United did not go into bankruptcy because of their customer service, but because of Sept. 11…and they were not bailed out by the government. The pilots & flights attendants lost their pensions, took 50% pay cuts; fights were cut; routes were cut; workers were cut; and managers increased their own pay causing severe problems & anger in the company. I have seen some poor customer service as well & I believe it does need to be corrected.
I do like Southwest, but they could not fly their guppies 14 hours. They can only fly short flights. Their managers care about the employees & don’t work on destroying the airline so that they can get their golden parachutes & retire.

By: How Much for a Baby’s United Airlines Ticket? Yours $60, Baby’s $1,280… « baworldtraveler

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:39:40 +0000

[...] Much for a Baby’s United Airlines Ticket? Yours $60, Baby’s $1,280… Read Absurd: your airline ticket cost $60; your baby’s ticket is $1280. After you read the article, please comment on the post and tell me what you think. When I read that [...]

By: perlhaqr

perlhaqr — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 06:59:52 +0000

Meh, seems like a reasonable ratio to me. This is basic economics: charge more for what you want to provide less of.