High Costs of Air Fares Hit Families With Children the Hardest

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18 December 2011

High Cost of Child airline Tickets by Hostels247

High Costs of Air Fares Hit Families With Children the Hardest.

Here are the facts, so you decide for your self.

Even if you are an adult on minimum wage or feel as though your wages are never enough to cover the monthly bills, it should be pointed out that adults without children in most cases still have it easier than people with children.

Holidays and travelling are what many people look forward to and if your lucky enough to have holidays abroad that means booking hotel accommodation and a place to stay as well as flight tickets to travel to your chosen location.

Now days there are three categories Air travellers fall into, and I don’t mean Economy, Business and First Class, what I am referring to is Infants, under 2 years Old, Children, from 2 till 12 and adults anyone over 12 years old.

Now let me explain why this is makes such a big impact on families and their holiday budget. Adults i.e the parents always pay adult prices that is a given, the sticking area and point of conflict is the children's prices.

Any infant under 2 years old pays a small fee to travel as the parents carry the child or have them in a cot during the flight at the front seats of the aircraft cabin. As soon as the child is 2 years and one day old the ticket price shoots up, to only about 10 or 20% less than an adult ticket.

Now its understandable that from maybe 4 or 5 the price should be more but from 2 years old, its too young, there can be a policy in place for airlines that the infants must sit on their parents lap for example

Then a child hits 12 years and 1 day now they are considered an adult and they have to pay the full fare.

I know most people don’t think about this until they become a parent, but airlines are unfairly overcharging children to fly.

A good breakdown of the three categories should be as follows
Infants Under 4 years old
Children 4 to 15 years old
Adults over 15 years old

Or ideally there should be 4 categories as follows
Infants Under 4 years old
Children 4 to 12 years old
Senior Children or Young Adults 12 to 16 years old
Adults over 16 years old

Apart from Airlines, most the Hospitality and Leisure industry have a much better pricing scheme for children, for example hostels in London, hotels Accommodation, Hotels in New York and all types of budget accommodation worldwide have great policies for children, such as the examples below

Under 5 years old are free
1 child free in each room when sharing same beds
2 children aged 16 or under is free when sharing with two adults
5 -12 year olds are half price
and many more.

Other modes of transportation are also child friendly, on trains such as euro star under 4 year old are free as they sit on their parents laps.

As a frequent traveler I feel that changes need to be made to Airline Ticket pricing to make it more child friendly and affordable for families in the future.

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