Alaska Now Charges Only Taxes For Lap Infants On Its Own Long-Haul Awards — Partner Redemptions Still Broken

American Airlines has told employees that it can now price and issue lap infant tickets on international revenue itineraries that include Alaska Airlines flights. That sounds like an obscure change, but it’s also something Alaska needed to become a real global airline and also the kind of systems up that Alaska needs as they discuss working more closely together with American Airlines as part of an antitrust-immunized joint venture. According to an internal American Airlines update reviewed by View From The Wing, Alaska Airlines has implemented automation that enables the pricing, ticketing, and acceptance of lap infants on international itineraries. American agents can now price and ticket an infant not occupying a seat on eligible international revenue itineraries containing Alaska segments. Infant fares on international trips are typically (though not always) 10% of the adult fare, plus taxes. (On domestic trips, infants under two traveling in an adult’s lap still don’t need a paid ticket.) Alaska Never Thought They Needed This Before Alaska Airlines has flown internationally for years but only to Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala and the Bahamas. That was still short haul flying, effectively an extension of its domestic network. A lap infant generally travels though taxes are collected on travel from some foreign airports. Alaska didn’t need the full apparatus to calculate a percentage-of-fare infant ticket on a $5,000 or $10,000 long haul business class purchase. While there is no seat associated with a lap infant ticket, there still has to be a ticket. The system has to: Recognize the INF passenger type and associate the child with an accompanying adult Price the correct infant fare and taxes Issue an electronic ticket even though no seat is being occupied Pass the infant information between airlines on an interline itinerary Allow the operating carrier to accept the ticket at check-in and boarding Hawaiian Airlines had long operated long haul flights and had to support international infant tickets. Alaska’s legacy operation did not. After buying Hawaiian, and also adding long haul flights of its own from Seattle, the’re increasingly a global airline. Alaska now flies from Seattle to Tokyo and Seoul and launched Rome, London and Reykjavik service this spring. It moved Hawaiian onto Alaska’s Sabre passenger service system in April, creating one reservations platform and one app for the combined operation. Interestingly, one of the self-service features Alaska highlighted at the time was the ability to add a lap child on domestic flights. International infant ticketing was still a separate problem. Now Alaska advertises that lap infants on its long haul international revenue flights can travel for 10% of the applicable adult fare, plus taxes. The infant has no seat, and the ticket has to be issued with the adult’s ticket through reservations rather than online. American’s change means that American can now sell and service those itineraries as well. Its system can price the infant document, issue it and have Alaska accept it. American And Alaska Are Already Moving Closer American and Alaska are more closely tied than two airlines that merely belong to oneworld. And their West Coast International Alliance includes codesharing, reciprocal elite upgrades, access to each other’s extra legroom seats and broader award availability. Alaska supplies the Pacific Northwest and Northern California network American lacks, while American gives Alaska customers access to a much larger global network. American and Alaska reportedly explored a merger, although those discussions reportedly did not advance. Instead, discussions have involved bringing Alaska into American’s transatlantic and transpacific joint ventures. That could mean Alaska joining American’s revenue-sharing arrangements with British Airways, Iberia and Finnair across the Atlantic and with Japan Airlines across the Pacific. Joint venture airlines coordinate schedules and fares and share revenue, effectively operating a metal-neutral network regardless of which partner operates a particular flight. A lap-infant ticketing change isn’t evidence this moves forward. Alaska needed this anyway, and extending the functionality to partner ticketing makes sense. But it’s also something that needs to happen to be a part of a larger alliance. Partner Award Tickets Still Haven’t Been Fixed American’s change issuing Alaska tickets refers to revenue itineraries only. Alaska has had one of the industry’s worst policies for families redeeming miles. Since 2018, the program has said it could no longer reliably issue lap infant tickets on international partner awards because of problems collecting and transmitting taxes. If a member redeemed Alaska miles for an international partner award, the choices were generally: Redeem additional miles for a full seat for the infant, assuming another award seat was available Ask the operating airline to issue a separate cash infant ticket, often for 10% of the applicable adult fare (they won’t always do this) Use a different program or give up the trip Sometimes the operating carrier will issue the infant ticket against an Alaska-issued award. I have done similar things with other programs. But it is not always possible, and Alaska does not guarantee or support the process. Alaska’s own long haul award flights are now different. A lap infant traveling on an Atmos Rewards booking is charged only the applicable international taxes, with no seat provided. These tickets have to be issued by reservations along with the accompanying adult’s award. No 10% of fare needed! But Atmos ticketing rules still say: Lap infants are not permitted on international partner awards and will not be accepted for travel. Members will need to book seats at prevailing rates. This means: Domestic Alaska travel: No infant fare when the child travels in the adult’s lap. Long haul Alaska or Hawaiian revenue travel: Generally 10% of the applicable adult fare, plus taxes. Long-haul Alaska or Hawaiian Atmos award travel: International taxes only, booked by phone. International Atmos partner awards: Alaska still does not issue a lap infant ticket. A full seat or an operating-carrier workaround is required. Alaska loyalty head Brett Catlin acknowledged last year that the partner-award problem was “niche but impactful” and said it would be addressed. So far only the revenue ticketing issue has been. Topics on this page