Jetstar has added a new fee for adults carrying babies on domestic flights, however that is only for domestic flights.
International flights will have a fee of around $50
Fee comparison
Jetstar — $30 for domestic one-way journeys, $50 for Trans-Tasman or international one-way journeys
Tigerair — $30 for each flight on a domestic one-way journey, no international flights offered
Qantas — Free on domestic or Trans-Tasman flights, 10 per cent of full fare for international flights
Virgin Australia — Free for domestic flights, 10 per cent of full fare for Trans-Tasman or international flights
Jetstar’s domestic fee matches Tigerair’s $30 charge for babies travelling on a guardian’s lap. Qantas and Virgin both being top airlines, do not charge ridiculous fees.
This isn’t really unexpected seeing that Jetstar and Tiger air are crap airlines because they are budget airlines. This is just another thing the worlds worst airline is doing to make more money.
I don’t know wether this is reasonable pricing or not but in my personal opinion it is a bit expensive, it depends the age of the baby because he/she can share the seat with his/her mother.
If the baby is slightly bigger in age or size, it would be reasonable to pay for another seat.
Fine with me. Tbf I think young children should only be allowed on certain flights. For example if you have Dubai - Heathrow 5x a day, young kids should only be allowed on 2 of them.
Yeah a baby weighs 1 ton, have you ever tried to pick them up and hold them for while. Maybe it would be ideal to charge only on flights that are longer than 2 hours (1 hour for budget airlines), parents would be likely to have baby off their lap on flights that long.
I don’t know what flight prices are like in Australia, but $30 for domestic seem too high. AUD $30 is about USD $22. Seat is between $75 and $100 between LAX to ORD for United or LAX to DTW for Delta depend on which day it is. I wouldn’t pay $22 fee since it’s 1/5 of my seat and baby doesn’t weigh 1/5 of my weight and certainly don’t take 1/5 of my space. Maybe fee shouldn’t be at fixed price, but a percent of seat parent is on. Seat price is different every day so fee should be different every day.
Not all budget airlines are necessarily ‘crap’, they are just less premium and you get what you pay for (and in BA’s case that’s less baggage and a brand name).
My take on this is that if the parent has to pay for the child to sit on your lap the entire flight, maybe pay a little bit more and get them their own seat. It was free before, if you’re on a tight budget then free is the way to go. Now? It might not be such a bad idea to just pay a little more. The parent has a more comfortable flight, the airline makes a little more money either way.
I’m not entirely sure of what you mean, but this is regarding infant-in-arms fees. Here’s an example.
Say Ms. Johnson wants to fly Jetstar from Sydney to Melbourne with her 18-month old child. Under current rules, she wouldn’t have to pay a fee if she wanted her child to sit in her lap for the flight. She and her child both take up one seat.
Under new rules, Ms. Johnson will now have to pay $30 for her child to sit in her lap. She and her child still take up one seat. Where she and her child are sitting doesn’t change, but they are now paying $30 more than they were before.
Unfortunately, no one gets another seat, whether free or paid. Having to pay $30 and getting another seat would be a massive loss for the airline, as that seat (which would normally priced at, say, $60 at the lowest) is now earning half as much compared to if they simply sold the seat in the first place. If you want another seat for your child, you are going to have to buy them their own ticket.
If you are talking to @Flightfan84 he wasn’t perfectly aware of how the new concept works.What he is saying now is it might be better for the parent to just pay for the seat next to them and be able to enjoy there own seat while also the airline benefits from the extra money.Because now in contrast there is a pretty expensive fee for a lap child so might as well take the while other seat.
@N644US The comment by @g100m is more what I was referring to. I’ll make myself the example. If my son could be infant-in-arms for no charge we might consider utilizing that offer. If however there was still a charge (say $30-$50 give or take) then I would really consider just buying him his own seat. So my thought process was that I wonder if this airline is doing this to provoke that exact thought: “I’m being charged for my child to fly regardless, maybe it would be worth my while to pay a little more to get them their own seat.” Now they’ve gone from free passenger to full paying passenger. Btw please don’t take this reiteration as I don’t think you comprehend my point, just clarifying is all.
Edit/Additional: Full transparency, I made myself the example but I would not ever have my son travel outside of a safety restraint.
Oh, that makes loads more sense. Just to relate this to the US3 carriers,
Delta has no fee for infant-in-arms
United requires an additional 10% of the cost of the parent’s ticket for the infant-in-arms
American says that “a percentage of the adult fare may apply.”
Considering that JetStar is an LCC, and that the fee for infant-in-arms is about half the price of a ticket (at least based on what I searched), it does make a lot of sense to just buy your child another seat and bring a car seat or the like. Although on routes like SYD-HNL, where I’ve seen the lowest ticket price be about $300, it seems that the extra $50 is much cheaper than buying another seat. So while I do agree with your statement in general (especially on shorter routes), it seems the fee may just be worth it on international routes (although it’s still $50 I’m not willing to spend, especially considering it’s JetStar).