Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Flying with infants to get expensive

Reads the news item:

Even a one-day old baby will have to pay ticket charges if the infant is travelling in a plane. Infants under the age of two years have to pay 10 per cent of the applicable fare, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said. Children between two and 12 years will have to pay 75 per cent of the fare on international routes and 50 per cent on domestic routes.

How many of you buy a separate seat for your children under 2 years? I once read on someone's blog stating she has been buying a separate seat for her son always even when he was only a few months old. I don't know if there's a regulation preventing parents from buying one for their newborns and toddlers. I always assumed it was more to do with safety of the child than parents worrying about spending on their baby's ticket. Which sounds fare enough because they can't yet handle themselves. No doubt, it's a pain holding a very much awake, curious and active toddler in your seat when all he wants to do is crawl around or jump over to the next seat. Airlines on the other hand are worried about parents' not buying tickets for their older children. On a trip from Delhi to Pune when the airport was teeming with people with no standing space, the airline staff insisted on seeing Lil' General to confirm he was 10 months old. I was standing in the Security Check line which was over a Km while The Seniol got our boarding passes. The Seniol promised to have LG crawling around the next time to assure the lady of his age!

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