No more freebie flights for infants?

By Christopher Elliott
CNN.com Travel Columnist

(CNN) -- Is it time to end one of the travel industry's longest-running fare sales, kids flying free?

Melissa Rosen thinks so. "It's a pretty good scam," says the career consultant at the University of Virginia's graduate school of business administration. "Parents book a ticket for themselves and a child. When they line up to board, the parent will claim the smaller kid is a 'lap child.'"

They may be anything but that, says Rosen. On a recent flight, she reports, "four little legs kicked me and tugged on the tray table attached to the back of my seat for two hours straight."

Halfway through the trip she asked the kids' mother to tell her 4- and 6-year-old daughters to keep still. "I was icily reprimanded with a 'They're just children' lecture," she recalls.

As she left the plane, Rosen asked the flight attendant if anything could be done about the obvious fact that the two weren't 'lap children.'

"If the parent says 'lap child,' it's a lap child," says Rosen, repeating what she'd been told.

Stretching the truth

One of the most common lies travelers tell concerns their children's age, says John Balzer, a regional manager for an international airline.

"They say, 'My baby is under 2 years of age, so it will go for free on my lap'," he says. "But at the airport, the 'infant' passport shows it's 2 1/2 years old."

Most domestic airlines allow babies to board for free as long as they're 2 or under and can sit on a parent's lap, says the Air Transport Association, the trade organization for the United States' major airlines. Once they exceed the minimum age, or if they require a safety seat, discounted fares are available and vary by airlines, the association says.

US Airways, for example, offers reduced rates that vary from market to market and can depend on the time a family's traveling, says David Castelveter, a spokesman for the carrier. The Arlington, Virginia-based airline usually doesn't ask for proof of age unless it's necessary to qualify for a special program, he says.

Other carriers apparently adhere to the same practice, meaning parents can get junior on board for nothing if they maintain he's 2 or younger.

As one airline executive admits, "It's really on the honor system."

That means honor occasionally takes flight when cash is involved. Since most passengers are determined to save money, travelers may see some of the biggest 2-year-olds ever in the main cabin.

Abuse widespread?

Just how ingrained is this "kids fly free" notion? Mark Ellis, a health care program manager in San Antonio, Texas, remembers a cabin attendant stopping him as he carried his infant son and the child's car seat to a flight. The car seat, she said, had to be checked as luggage.

"When I pointed out that my son had his own (airplane) seat, she indicated most people do not buy seats for their children, but hope that there will be empty seats," he says. "I guess that logic is still prevailing."

Certainly, some parents abuse the system, but it's impossible to say how many. The U.S. Department of Transportation doesn't track airline passengers' ages, alleged or actual.

Despite those cheaters, say some proponents of kids flying free, the system is not broken. Why fix it?

"An infant in a parent's arms does not take up any additional resources from the airline and does not cause an inconvenience to other passengers," insists Greg Nieberding, co-president of Baby B'Air, a Dallas, Texas, company that develops in-flight safety harnesses for children. "If you force a parent to buy a seat for an infant, they may choose to travel by car, which has been proven to be statistically more dangerous."

Others, while acknowledging children usually don't take up much more space, still feel repairs are overdue. Kevin Ives is one.

"I have had one or two times where I've sat next to some women with a baby, or two or three kids, and they are the most annoying little brats on a long flight," complains the traveler from Buffalo, New York.

So it seems it comes down to this: Many parents couldn't afford to travel if it weren't for the generous policy airlines extend to their children. At the same time, youngsters can exact a toll on other passengers. Shouldn't someone pay for that?

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