could an adult fly on a child ticket??

here's an interesting one , sparked by a phone call from my brother, who asked me to use my 'contacts' to find him a floriday. he has a son by a previous marriage who will actually be 17 when travelling but i thought was 16.
certain tour operators and virgin brokers have different deals for older kids getting child prices etc .

is it possible for a say 18 year old to use a child ticket or would it get picked up at check in?. i dont intend to do it but it crossed my mind that:-

1 if you got a special kids deal over and above a normal deal, where does it say on the ticket that its a special older kids deal or

2 if there was an older kids deal on, but the broker 'blagged' you and charged you full adult fare - how would you know anyway?

Trevlad,

I am sure that all children fares are between the ages of 2-11 anyway? Certainly I have never heard of any special fares for kids of aged 16, and if there are please tell me about it:D

Most airlines have a limit of age 12 on a childs ticket. There are some that do special deals for older children but you would have to check with the individual airlines. It is usual procedure to ask for the childs age when booking a ticket and all of the passport details have to be inputed from the UK before being allowed to land in the US. I would strongly reccomend not messing around and giving false or misleading information when it comes to ticketing this end and immigration the other side. Just try and get a good deal with the airline you wish to travel with - some of them do do a special fare for this age group but don't lie about the age as they will see the passport details anyway!

Hello. Once a child reaches 12 they are classed as an adult.
Youth and Student fares were phased out years ago.

Diane
Virgin have been offering some child price up to age 16 recently, and also children flying for £85 when 2 adult tickets are pruchased , if you contact Charter Travel they have all the info and offers.

Trev
I am almost certain it would get picked up somewhere in the ticketting procedure if not checkin, when there are so many numbers printed on your ticket it's difficult to know what is encoded into the number, I wouldnt have though it worth the risk to save a few pounds because if it does get picked up you can guarantee the only available ticket that will be offered in order to fly will the most expensive full fare published or that you will be refused permission to board.

Just to add to the previous post, I have heard of special fares for other age groups but do not know which carriers as BA and Virgin have a strict 12 year old full fare policy. So if you do hear of who then it would be useful to know!

Virgin do sometimes offer kids fares for up to 16 year olds !

We've had offers sent through from Charter Travel for kids fares up to age 16 on Virgin - they never seem to be in school holidays though[msnsad]

Ebookers were doing special fares for 12 to 16 year olds with Virgin for school holidays. I was trying to book for July 2005.

I know this because I have a 15 year old and so was very interested. I didn't take it up because Charter offered me a better deal overall [msnsmile].

Personally i would contact the airline and explain the problem. When we book flights our Travel agent always ask for DOB.
It would not be very funny if they refused to take him when he checks in.