posted on August 3, 2001 06:34:20 PM
Hi!
I have to fly out to California (and get to search for ebay stuff too!)..wanting to take my 2 1/2 yr old grandaughter with me.
If anyone travels much..could you tell me how closely they check age as I'd like to not have to pay for her because she will sit in my lap the entire trip anyway.
posted on August 3, 2001 07:40:05 PM
I don't mean to be mean, but if you can't afford to pay for a seat for her, then she (or you both) should stay home. I would NEVER take a child, no matter what age, on an airplane without that child having his/her own seat and safety harness. You never know when the plane will hit turbulance and people have been hurt badly and even killed that was not securely fastened into their seat.
posted on August 3, 2001 07:42:16 PM
Yup! For the good of everyone involved, sometimes it's best to play by the rules that everybody else has to play by.
posted on August 3, 2001 08:02:21 PM
As a mom, I agree with the others. The child's safety and life are worth more than the price of her ticket. In case of turbulence, the child could be easily thrown out of your lap and become a human missile, endangering herself and those around her. It is no different than what could happen to her if she was in a car accident without a child safety seat. I'm sure you care too much about her to take such chances.
And, I believe with United Airlines, an infant's ticket is half-price and not free, so we're talking about half a ticket. I don't know about the other airlines.
And, in this case it should be a moot point. The cut-off age is 2 and your grandchild is 2 1/2.
posted on August 3, 2001 08:10:56 PM
You should check w/the airlines about this. I thought many of them now required young children to be in a car seat to prevent accidents in case of turbulence.
I hate to be morbid but this is exactly what happened to a set of parents when that plane cartwheeled some years ago in Iowa. They were holding their child and the force of the impact ripped her away from them. They walked away, the child, unfortunately, didn't.
posted on August 3, 2001 08:12:02 PM
All issues of morality and safety aside, just think of the practical nature.
I think that most people take along a "lap child" with the assumption that there will be an empty seat somewhere.
These days with fewer planes flying and more people flying, there is a very real chance that you will have to sit with the squirming kid on your lap for 2-3 hours. Those airline seats are tiny. I know I could never, ever do that with my 16 month old.
posted on August 3, 2001 08:32:46 PM
And, I believe with United Airlines, an infant's ticket is half-price and not free, so we're talking about half a ticket. I don't know about the other airlines.
The half price infant fares are for children under the age of two who will not be traveling as lap children. Only Southwest offers regular child/youth fares. The intent of the infant fares is to get infants off of passengers' laps and into child safety seats where they belong. The airlines are supposed to be checking birth certificates on infants traveling whether they're ticketed or not. I've never traveled with an infant nor do most of my clients (I'm a travel agent), so I don't know if the counter agents are enforcing the policy regularly or not, though one of my clients did report back an incident where the party in front of him was trying to get a 3 year old onto a plane as a lap child. The counter agent asked the kid how old he was, and he told her. From there it got ugly, and Mom & Dad wound up paying full fare to get junior home.
I don't know if the fares are still valid, but earlier this summer some airlines were running a companion special for a senior (over 62) traveling with a child (under 18).
posted on August 3, 2001 09:07:58 PM
When my children were lap-age children (it was 3 at the time) the safety issues had not been raised. I flew with one baby or the other on my lap about 200 times with no problems. Yes I breathed a sigh of relief when the middle seat was empty which was very common back then. If we had had to pay for seats for them I could never have taken my family with me on many of my business trips.
And, yup, my kids were always good on planes...slept most of the time and never had those crying jags all the infants sitted next to me seem to have now!
Gerald
"Oh but it's so hard to live by the rules/I never could and still never do."
posted on August 4, 2001 02:06:49 AMdecpage - If you look closely at the original message in this thread, you will notice that the poster is flying to California to buy stuff to sell on eBay. There's the connection!
Gerald
"Oh but it's so hard to live by the rules/I never could and still never do."
