5 things to know: booking a lap infant

when we traveled with our twins for the first time in april 2021 we couldn’t have been more excited. We were going to florida with them and because they are under two years old we didn’t need to pay for the seats! many parents still choose to purchase seats for their infants to make the experience a bit easier, but for a short flight it doesn’t seem worth the extra expense.

JetBlue (I’m a die-hard TrueBlue member since 2007 when I was a campus-rep for JetBlue at NYU) made it very easy to book the lap infants online. i assumed every airline would be the same but I was wrong. for our following trips involving Delta, KLM, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic it wasn’t so easy. 

you should google and read up on each airline’s individual policy, but here are five things to be aware of before you get started:

1. most airlines, require you call them to add your lap infants but a hack is to text the airline

   Delta and Virgin Atlantic wouldn’t allow me to add lap infants online. The hold times to get in touch with someone on the phone was hours due to Covid. instead I leveraged Delta’s iMessage customer service and Virgin’s WhatsApp customer service to get things sorted. i needed to have the confirmation numbers ready and I kept copying and pasting the same requests until I got through to someone. the response time is very long but unlike waiting on the phone, you can just wait for them to text you back. The downside is if they respond and you are sleeping or don’t see the message you’ll get put to the back of the queue again. this was still faster than waiting on hold.

2. book two aisle seats across from each other vs. a window and aisle or some other combination

   many airlines including JetBlue wouldn’t let us book seats next to each other directly (assuming you are flying with twins or two babies). this has to do with the arrangement and availability of oxygen masks for kids on planes. having two aisle seats next to each other actually ended up being great and now we opt for that. easier access to the bathroom and to be able to get up with a baby was great. It’s also easier to flag down a flight attendant if you need one. finally, you’re less likely to disturb your seat mates. do be careful to watch your babies hands and feet get in the way in the aisle. 

3. to bassinet or not to bassinet? that is the question
   shorter flights (e.g. NYC to Florida) won’t have bassinet options. longer haul flights will (e.g to Europe and some cross country flights).make sure to check the airlines rules and requirements. most airlines require you to book a bassinet on the phone (or via text like mentioned above) in addition to booking the lap infants. it’s annoying and I can’t figure out why they make it so difficult. you want to find out from the airline if you can guarantee the bassinet/s or if you’ll have to wait until 24-hours before. most will say that if an accessible passenger needs the spot more than you, you will get bumped. for Virgin Atlantic, for example, we had to wait until 24-hours before. we’ve yet to successfully get two bassinets on a flight, next to each other, but even having one was amazing. 

   our babies were 13 months the first time they experienced an in-flight bassinet. it was an overnight flight for europe and even though we couldn’t just leave them in there like a newborn, once they were sleeping, putting them down and strapping them in was great. they were just under the maximum weight. we plan to bassinet until they are overweight for it.

4. arrive to the airport extremely early

   for international flights, actually be at the check in counter three hours early. For domestic two is probably sufficient. with the new Covid world and more you never know what could happen. recently we went to Europe and booked Delta flights with points that was a flight managed by KLM. i added the two babies via text (per the above) but when we get to the airport, three babies were on the reservation even though we only have two (unless my wife’s hiding something). because it was a rewards flight through Delta, operated by KLM it took them two hours of calling people to figure it out and we had the same issue again on our connection flight. 

5. get TSA precheck and global entry for your infants

   this might sound like overkill, but it’s not. ANYTHING you can do to make the airport experience better is worth it. If you and your partner have TSA precheck the babies will probably get it too but don’t risk it. You can do Global Entry + TSA precheck in one fail swoop. then you are guaranteed to keep shoes on (which is huge when carrying two babies and pushing a stroller) and laptops in your bag, etc.

   global entry was a huge time saver when we returned to the US. the babies definitely needed that to be able to join us. even though only US citizens were returning to the US due to Covid restrictions, there was a long line to check forms, Covid tests, etc. we zipped right through with global entry.