Since we have a Baby WeeklyFlyer joining our family this year, I’ve been giving this topic more and more thought. Flying with infants is often a hot topic.
Reading MommyPoints, FlyingWithFish and DeltaPoints has made me re-examine our booking strategy with an added focus on safety. As an added bonus, I’ve found out that you can actually book a ticket for a baby not yet born.
While the rules permit a parent to hold an infant in arms until the age of 2, it just doesn’t feel right making the baby sit on one of our laps for an entire flight. What if there was turbulence, I kept thinking to myself. Not feeling 100% that we had made the right decision, we re-evaluated our flight and booking strategy.
Flying With An Infant – Maximize Safety And Mileage
Our original ticket was for 2 seats in first class on a 3.5 hour flight. The ticket priced out at 80,000 SkyMiles per person plus a $5 booking fee per person. We called the Delta Diamond desk and had the mile re-deposited for free.
We booked our new ticket to maximize safety and miles. We booked 3 coach seats for a shorter flight. The new flight only required 42,500 miles per person plus a $10 booking fee per person. The new flight required a total mileage outlay of 127,500, a 32,500 mile savings over our original booking.
Most importantly we can all now sit in a row together and have our own seats. The baby will be slightly less than a year old during this trip. Our new plan is to place a car seat in the middle seat where the baby can sit comfortably for the flight.
Booking Ticket With Infant
My last update about flying with an infant, I shared how I couldn’t book a ticket without actually having a real life baby. Who would have thought you actually need a baby to book a flight? But it turns out this is not the case.
Fast forward 4 weeks, Mr & Mrs WeeklyFlyer are booked and so is Baby WeeklyFlyer. How did we do it? We simply gave Delta Baby WeekFlyer’s name and a birthday in the past. The birthday will be changed once the baby is born. Delta confirmed this is not an issue and it can be easily changed at a later date.
The best part is Baby WeeklyFlyer is now safely confirmed with the first itinerary.
Help us keep the blogging momentum by signing up for our RSS Feed to have blog posts sent directly to your email, or consider joining us on Twitter or Facebook.
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
Sign up for Email || Twitter || Facebook |
Hotel Offers || Airline Offers || Bank Offers || Cash Back Offers
Good move. 😉 I think you will be happy with your decision. Especially since by almost age 1, your little one will be quite mobile and the extra space will be appreciated….as will the extra peace of mind.
I’m assuming it is free to change the name/bday because you are able to make free changes to tickets with your Diamond status? Just curious if those without status who have to pay for changes could also implement that strategy or not.
Thanks for sharing!
You can’t place a car seat in the middle. You’ll have to put it in the window seat.
Concur w avi. They made us move our daughter over.
Oh and Avi is correct about the car seat. They are obnoxiously large in those small airplane seats, so they have to go next to the window for safety (evacuation) purposes. ;). Also you have to avoid not just exit rows, but rows in front or behind exit rows.
I know you can request a bassinet on intl flights. Are there any domestic flights offering bassinets?
Great post. I wouldn’t have guessed it was possible to book a ticket before birth.
I guess Baby WeeklyFlyer will have to wait before joining a FF program? 🙂
Car Seats on the plane are ridiculous.
Mommypoints – It was mentioned would be free because the Baby wasn’t born yet the date was wrong and could be changed. Could be that I was on the Diamond line as well as am a Diamond member.
All – Good to know about the car seat having to be at window.
Warmnuts – That is what I am thinking, but is there an alternative?
My wife and I flew from PBI to SNA when my daughter was 7 months old. We planned the flight so it was when she would normally be sleeping or getting real tired. (6pm departure from Florida) She slept almost the whole trip in a baby bjorn attached to my wife.
I will say that having the middle seat is nice simply to hold all the baby crap.
The car seat is a bit of pain, but there really isn’t a better suggestion for a kid that age. You can use the CARES harness when the kiddo gets a bit older, but not under a year. I do miss the car seat in some ways because our kiddo slept MUCH better in the car seat than she does now in the harness.
Why can’t you refer to him/ her as baby martini?
Because he / she is not 21 yet:)