Charge for a lap child

[mis099dlm]

Spirit announced the $50 dollar charge for lap babies by at least 10/2007. I remember because I thought Woo hoo! Then in 11/2007, when I booked by $54 roundtrip in fares for DGM, 14 month old, and myself, I thought "How ironic! In a few months it could cost the same for lap baby as a seat.!" Sorry you missed the announcement. At least they gave 6+ months notice unlike the new bag fees the airlines are charging now with little notice.

Spirit's web booking system is lax in that it doesn't ask "do you have a child < 2 traveling in the same seat?" during the ticket purchase process. If they presented the fee during booking, customers could make a more informed decision.

Add me to the selfish group. I prefer my young 'uns strapped into their familar car seat rather than skirming on my lap.

I remember a white knuckler prop flight in a snow storm where the plane did a 180 degree tip or roll (don't know the correct term), plane dropping /hitting tubulence for about 40 minutes or the flight, passengers puking left and right, flight to ruff for the FA to ever get out of the jump seat (or make eye contact), the dead silence in the cabin (except for the quiet sobbing of the young girls in the back) as we were swinging in for a landing on the only open runway due to wind shears, then hitting the runway *BAM*! bounce, bounce, bounce... I can't imagine trying to hold onto 10-30 lbs of wriggling kid under those conditions.

 

[bavaria]

Spirit announced the $50 dollar charge for lap babies by at least 10/2007.

Here is a blog from January 2008 also indicating a fee http://inflightout.blogspot.com/2008/01/manybag-and-lapchildren-fees-from.html

Want to bring a LapChild along during your Spirit flight? (They don't count as the free carry-on). Children under the age of 2 are not required to purchase their own seat, but come May 1st if they're going to sit in your lap, those little people incur a LapChildren fee of $25 bucks each way on Spirit Airlines.

Unfortunately it does appear that this charge has been around for some time, although the OP was not aware of it.

 

[Pinnie]

Add me to the list of kids should belong in car seats while flying. They beauty of SWA is that if I see a lap baby near me, I move FAR away so that I will not be the target of the missle.

I was on a flight from BNA to DTW a couple of summers ago when we hit a pocket of turbulance and a lap baby smacked his head right into a tray table. Raised a nice goose eggon the poor kiddo.

pinnie

 

[Zeebs]

Yeah well, as I already stated I am clearly a terrible mother. Who doesn't love her child enough to care about his safety. But thanks for making that even clearer.

Be sure to give him a wave as he smashes you on the head on the way past in the 1 in 10.46 million odds of it happening.

Also like to point out Virgin will not allow you to take a carseat with you on board their flights so if you cannot get one of their "first in first served child seats" your child will be in a seat with a belt like all other adults.

Maybe if I flew American airlines across America then I would consider the carseat however, internationally it just isn't practical.

Kirsten

 

[goofy4tink]

OKay guys...happy Sunday morning to you all. Looks like this one is about as done as they come. Things are getting a bit nasty here....so, it's getting shut down. There is no room for sarcasm or nastiness here.