Booking travel for someone who doesn't exist ... yet...

[simongr]

OK - here we go. A quick question for you all and I reckon one of the more unusual ones for the forums

I am planning/hoping to go back to the UK in Oct/Nov next year with mrssimongr. I have/will have around 240K points so all right for a partner award in J under AAdvantage.

Now comes the tricky part

There wont be just the two of us on the journey. In early April next year the party of two should be joined by a third.

The problem is that I will need to book the flights around 4-5 months before [nsert naming convention denoting a small version of simongr here] actually has a name, date of birth, passport, sex... as we want to fly in J.

I know/believe under AAdvantage that lap infants or infants age 0-2 are booked on a regular ticket and you cant use points to book them - you have to pay 10% of the regular scheduled fee.

The reason for going at around 6 months is that I figure a 6 month old in a bassinet seat would be a better travel companion than an 18 month who is trying to explore the cabin, coughpit...

Any suggestions on where I start with this? I dont have to book the flights for a month or so so have some planning time.

I am wondering whether I could add the little one once it has escaped but as this is an aaward booking I am not sure that will cause issues. I also don't think the airlines would allow you to book an unaccompanied 5 month old.

We have to go back to the UK as some of my family can't come here and I want to show off the little as soon as we can - my grandmother is 86 and wont fly here (although I could maybe book her an F return if all else fails).

Simon

 

[Shano]

Can't help you with your booking question, but congratulations on the pending arrival!

 

[docjames]

[nsert naming convention denoting a small version of simongr here]

Congrats - suggest juniorgr (more flexible as he/she gets older), minigr, or babygr!


Re: your real question, surely you just book the two flights for you and Mrsgr, and call AA when babygr arrives and say you'd like to add to the booking. As you'll be seated front row in bassinet position anyway, this seems the simplest option.

Alternative is just ring and ask when booking the flights initially and they'll annotate the booking pending updated details?

 

[tuapekastar]

'fraid I can't offer much for the booking except talk to the airline, I'm sure that while unusual, this would not be without precedent.

And more importantly, congratulations to you both!

 

[High Horse]

Cool - a question I can actually help with, being the mother of several reasonably well-travelled offspring.

Make your bookings whenever you want to, and then add your baby once they are born and have a name. We booked MEL-NAN for 4 of us on points, then rang QFF and added the baby once she was born. We tried to originally add Infant TBA - to get an early request on the bassinette, but this is not allowed. When we rang QFF they just charged us a nominal 10% of something random.

 

[simongr]

Thanks for the well wishes all

Cheers for the info. When I have exact points required I will start the booking

Now if this Amex promo goes well - maybe the first flight for [insert name here] will be in F

 

[Travel Guru]

High Horse is correct, it's something the airlines (and agents) encounter regularly and are well versed in dealing with, so you shouldn't have any problems, just make the booking when you're ready and call and add the infant in once born.

Congrats mate, all the best with it.

TG

 

[medhead]

I'm no help with the booking question. However, congratualtions on the soon to be minigr.

My advice on a happy flying baby would be to feed it. I've seen one example of SIN to FRA and the mother feed the baby once :!: :shock: Of course it screamed, by comparison my 2 kids wanted feeding every 4 to 6 hours = 3 or 4 times for sin to fra. I've also heard of a 2 feed baby syd to lax - another screamer