Can I book a flight for an as yet unborn child?

[Dads_Taxi]

2013 is rapidly becoming the year I feel OLD. I turned 50 last month and also discovered we're going to be grandparents in June.

So, my question is, when I book flights in May for April 2014, can I include an as yet unborn infant in the booking?

Anyone any experience of this?

[caroline]

Here's Virgin's answer!

Kareen: Hello, you're chatting with Kareen. How can I help?
Caroline: If I want to book a flight for next year how can I include an infant that isn't yet born? Is it possible?
Kareen: Hi Caroline. Hope you are well.
Kareen: Congratulations! What you can do is complete your booking online and then we can add a note to advise you are expecting and that you will be adding an infant to the booking at a later date. When you would like to add your baby to the booking, please call our Reservations Team and we can add them onto the booking for you. Would you like the telephone number?
Caroline: yes please
Kareen: The telephone number for our UK Contact Centre is 08448 747 747, which is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Caroline: thanks so much

[caroline]

I daresay other airlines will do the same. Oh and Congratulations!

[Gerry Reed]

We had to do this for our un-born granddaughter (and her mum!) last year.
With Virgin they would only book seats etc for the rest of the party, with a note on the booking that there would be a baby but they would not take payment or fix payment at the current price, for the baby, as they said there was always the possibility of something going wrong between booking, and travel date, with the pregnancy. I had to phone them as soon as the baby was born with name and birth date - both of which are needed to make a firm booking. As a baby (for us 3 months at the time of travel) does not have a seat, it was easy to add her onto our booking as soon as she was born and pay the price (about £100) for her ticket then.
Congratulations on becoming a granddad - it is great fun !

Sue

[Dads_Taxi]

Wow, instant responses, thanks very much to you both.
Caroline, did you just do that now? If so, that was very clever, good thinking.

I'll report back in May when I've tried to make the booking.

[erowlands]

Best wishes Dave, we now have 7 grandchildren, get's expensive at Christmas and when we are in Florida looking for presents for them all!
Eric

[caroline]

Wow, instant responses, thanks very much to you both.
Caroline, did you just do that now? If so, that was very clever, good thinking.

I'll report back in May when I've tried to make the booking.

Yes Dave, I went on their website and did a search but couldn't find anything so tried the live chat [:)]

[Dads_Taxi]

Cheers Eric. I imagine that with all 4 of my kids being so child-orientated this will be the first of several!
And thanks again Caroline. This really is a very nice community we are all part of. :)

[chrissb]

I managed to do this 11 years ago with Trailfinders, flight booked in February for a December departure. They should be able to take the booking, and allow you to add the name when the baby is born. Should not be an issue as the baby will be travelling on parents lap so will not have a seat.

[Dads_Taxi]

Well, I can now answer my own question with regards to Fly Thomas Cook.

I was on the Fly Thomas Cook web site booking the flights in May, and having entered all the passengers I realised our unborn infant was going to be a problem as we didn't have a name or date of birth, so initially I made up a name and DOB, and it said the infant booking was £100. I was literally about to pay for the flights when the little "I've read the Terms+Conditions" tick-box cropped up, and since I was spending over £7K I thought maybe I should actually scan through them. I'm glad I did because when it came to the terms for name changes it reckoned it would be £35 per flight, so £70 to correct my made up details. I reluctantly phoned their 10p/minute customer services (having drawn a blank trying to find a real phone number for them) and the nice lady advised that I was correct in that changing the name of even an unborn infant would cost £70 so she recommended I simply phone after the baby was born to add the infant to my booking, which would not incur an extra charge.

Of course when I hit the "back" button to leave the payments page all the passenger details I'd entered vanished so I was back to square one ! I typed everyone in again, ticked the little "YES, I've read your Ts+Cs" box, and handed over a load of dosh.

Time passes......... ........... .............. ............. .............. ................

So, on Monday I decided it was time to add baby Miley-Rose (now 3 months old) to our flight booking. I tried, in vain, once more to find a geographic phone number for Fly Thomas Cook that actually works, then spent a couple of quid speaking to a very helpful chap who has added Miley-Rose to our booking, and the charge was £59 which includes a 10Kg baggage allowance and any two items from a list of three: Car Seat, Travel Cot, Pushchair.

So, that's my question answered,hope that helps someone.

[Lizb]

Glad to hear you were able to add baby Miley-Rose to your booking, the additional cost sounds really good.

Enjoy your holiday.

[Gerry Reed]

Glad that all worked well for you.
Another useful tip for those with under 2s. My son and family (2 adults, a 3 year old and an 18m old) have just booked flights with Virgin. They booked three seats as normal for two adults and a 3 year old and the small charge for the 18m old with no seat , they then paid £60 each way for an extra seat for my son ( a new thing from Virgin to give you extra space). That then meant that the 18m old gets a seat at a much cheaper price than if they had actually booked her own seat for her. Of course, strictly speaking, the 18m old is not supposed to sit in the seat - my son is supposed to spread out over two seats but in reality it gives them 4 seats to use as they like.

Sue

[Tony G]

'Miley-Rose' - what a great name. Congratulations!

Back on topic, it was a useful post too.