Since we are expecting, I recently explored Delta’s requirements to travel with an infant. For our first award trip with the baby, I called Delta and requested to add an infant to our award booking. The process is easier than I thought, but I ran into one small snag during the booking process which prevented us from adding the baby to the reservation.
I’ll venture into fatherhood as a frequent traveler this year and I have a lot to learn. I’m looking forward to the learning curve about little things such as when is it appropriate to bring an infant into first class, being respectful to other passengers, is an infant in arms safe, and figuring out our baby’s schedule (I love the picture of a little one in Virgin Atlantic’s lie flat seat in Mommy Points post here). Learning the ropes will be fun and I’m sure just as exhausting. I’m thinking that I’ll probably get more sleep on a red-eye in seat 34b than I will at home. These are all the part of the deal that I’m happy to have signed up for as a soon to be Dad.
Don’t Forget The Booking Requirements
I captured the essential infant in arms booking requirements in my last post about flying with an infant. I’ll say that I must have not read my own post very carefully. When I tried to add an infant to our booking today, the request was denied due to one small factor. I’ve learned that you actually need a baby and must have a name. Since we don’t yet have a baby, we couldn’t add the infant to our reservation.
You can book your ticket through your normal process and then call Delta to add an infant in arms to your reservation.
- You can book online or over the phone
- If you book online you will need to call Delta to give them the name and DOB
Bottom Line
I think I’m as excited about our soon to be family member as any other parent. I jumped the gun by trying to add our baby to our award ticket. Next time, I’ll wait until the little baby has arrived before trying to add them to the flight record.
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Related Posts
Flying With An Infant – Common Questions and Answers
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The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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its time to change your blog to Daddy Points 😉 j/k … congratulations!
Flying made easy = Scotch for Dad. Wine for Mom. Benadryl for infant.
Well honestly that was a really stupid thing to try if the baby is not even here yet. I would be very surprised if they let you add the baby now 🙂
@WarmNuts-Benadryl can wind up (not down) some infants/children to do a test run at home b4 the flight.
M&Ms are our ticket.
@boilers. I have heard that before but for my little one it worked great. I guess the other option is Scotch for everyone.
Hi Jamison – Good thought, but I’ll stick with the Martinis 🙂
BoiledNuts – Scotch or Bourbon?
Josinei – Agree, excitement got to me. I’m reconsidering the infant in the lap. I’m looking at alternative options and will report back soon.
Boilers – Good to know. I hear jelly beans work really good as well, but the sugar of both can have the opposite effect.
RoastedNuts – I heard that rubbing a little Bourbon on the gums helps during teething, but this is the first I’ve heard that is helps when flying:)
I think the most important thing to know is to add the infant to an *international* ticket at the time of ticketing. For domestic, you can just turn up at the airport and add your child when checking luggage. (You will be checking luggage.) But for int’l, you would pay 10% of the walk-up fare, which could be sky-high. If you add the infant at the time of ticketing, you’ll only pay 10%
When travelling int’l by miles with an infant, Delta sometimes wants you to pay 10% of the full-fare ticket price, and sometimes 10% of the lowest price. If the rep is asking for 10% of full-fare, I just call back and speak with someone else.
Good luck!