I just wanted to share with 'mums to be', 'pregnant mums', 'new mums'... actually any mums out there, my expensive experience.
I have always been led to believe that babies who travel on your lap, fly for free. NOT TRUE!
I booked flights to Australia back in January 2017, when I was pregnant, with Expedia. I phoned them because I knew I would be traveling in October with my 3 yo daughter and with a 12 week old infant. Back then I didn't know my baby's name or even if he was going to male of female, therefore I couldn't book online without the infant details. I explained this to their travel booking agent over the phone. I got the same quoted price as the online quote for 1 Adult, 1 Child and 1 Infant traveling to Australia. Therefore I booked over the phone because I obviously couldn't add my baby's details back then, and was advised to call back once my had my infant's name and passport details. I presumed all three of us were booked, and that all I was doing was adding my infant's name to the booking once we knew.
Eight months later, I have called to give my infant son's details, only to find that I must pay for a separate infant ticket (apparently required) and that the infant fare is 10% of an adult fare. No one told me this at the time of booking or at any time after when I called both Expedia and the Airline to request an infant bassinet seat on the flight and assistance as I was traveling alone with both of them. Furthermore, it's not 10% of 'my' cheaper flight ticket/fare that I paid back in January, it's 10% of the published adult ticket/fare NOW - at the time of creating my son's booking! Had I known this, I would have called back in July when I registered his name! - it would have been most probably cheaper!
I have since done my research and found that it is only some airlines, short-haul flights and domestic flights - which are free for infants to travel on an adult lap. Long haul flights on many airlines make you pay for an 'infant fare' between 1% - 25% of an adult fare at the time of making the infant fare's booking, most charging 10%. I found my info here on a skyscanner article: www.skyscanner.net/news/flying-babies
Please be aware of this and not be caught out like me! I couldn't even find anything on the Airline's website about charging a 10% infant fare. Expedia, to be fair, have been good and after many exhausting hours on the phone, explaining and debating (in between breast feeding), as a gesture of 'good will' compensated me 50% of the published fare in my circumstance for my baby's ticket... but that is still more expensive than 10% of my ticket/fare that I paid back in January.
It is outrageous that Airlines charge this 10%, as infants are NOT guaranteed a bassinet, do NOT eat or take up a seat, yet are still charged 10%... god knows for what? Oh ...and then there's the tax on top of that, but that's not the Airlines' fault. Although I struggled to find any indication of how much they charge or how much an infant travels for on their websites.