Lap Infants and Kids on Award Tickets: What Programs Charge

Who sets the infant price on an award ticket

The infant's price follows the rules of the program that issued the adult's award, not the airline whose plane you board. The same business-class seat can carry a 2,500-point infant add-on when Aeroplan issues the ticket, 10% of the Avios when British Airways Club issues it, and a separate cash infant ticket, usually at a percentage of the adult fare, when Singapore Airlines does, because KrisFlyer miles cannot buy an infant ticket at all. Each of those rules is printed on the program's own page. The pages of four of the six programs were re-read on October 28, 2026; British Airways and American were read as archive copies because the live pages refused our requests, and the table gives the dates.

The reason is mechanical. An award is a ticket the program issues, and a lap infant is attached to the adult's ticket. A baby on a lap takes no seat, so the program can price the add-on however its own rules say: a flat fee, a share of the points, a share of a cash fare, or nothing on some routes. Nothing forces two programs to agree, and the pages show that they do not.

Two consequences follow. First, a transfer partner that looks cheapest for the adults can be the most expensive for the family, once the infant charge, which the policy pages price separately from the adult award, is added. Second, the price you pay is often not on the airline's infant page. Delta's infant page, for example, prices lap infants without mentioning awards, and Delta's program rules say only that award terms for children and infants are the same as for adults.

Scope: this page owns the infant and child fee. Seat counts, hotel rooms and route choices for a whole household live in the family of four playbook, which can link here for the baby's line. The rest of the cash that surrounds an award is covered across the booking guides.

What each program's own page prints

The table below carries only what the program's pages state: live pages read October 28, 2026, and the British Airways and American rows from archive copies read October 24, 2026. Where a page gives a percentage but no award-specific amount, the cell says so instead of filling in a number from memory. Two pages were read as archive copies because the live page refused our requests; the capture date is in the last column.

Three pricing shapes show up. Aeroplan and Virgin Atlantic publish a flat amount: Aeroplan prints one amount with no cabin split, while Virgin steps up by cabin. British Airways publishes a share of the points. Delta, American and Singapore point to a share of a cash fare, and none of those three pages says which fare product the percentage is taken from. That gap matters, because 10% of the $6,000 stated fare used in the example below is $600 and the page does not name the base.

A flat fee or a share of points can be known before any points move. A share of a cash fare cannot, which is why the checklist at the end of this page asks for the infant's quote before the adults are ticketed.

United, Alaska and Flying Blue: what the primary pages say

United is not in the table. United's own infant page did not load for our requests on October 28, 2026, and the one archive snapshot we found earlier held a script shell with no policy text, so this guide prints no United figure. Open United's infant page and the fare breakdown on the booking before relying on any number, ours included.

Alaska's lap infant page, read on October 28, 2026, says that when you travel internationally using points on Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines or a partner airline, an adult-fare number of points is required and the infant travels in its own seat. It adds that international award travel including an infant booked with an adult can be completed online. The same page says long-haul lap infants on paid tickets travel for 10% of the applicable adult fare plus taxes, which is a revenue-ticket rule, not an award rule. The page does not name Atmos Rewards, and Atmos's own award pages could not be read, so no Atmos infant fee is printed and Atmos is not plotted on the chart.

If Alaska or Atmos is your candidate, ask Alaska's reservations team to add the infant to the specific award with the price stated, and keep that quote before moving points. We could not confirm any other infant award charge at Alaska from the program's own page, and nothing on this page rests on an outside report of one.

Flying Blue is a similar gap. The Air France and KLM pages we tried did not load, so neither a Flying Blue infant figure nor a Flying Blue child rule appears in this guide, which keeps the child section below honest: it names only programs whose pages were read.

The same seat, priced four ways

The chart puts the three points-based infant add-ons from the table on one axis: the infant's charge as a share of the adult's award price for the same seat. To draw it, the adult's price is set at an illustrative 100,000 points one way. Real adult prices differ by route, cabin and date, so a flat fee looks larger or smaller against a real adult price than it does here.

The ladder is steep at the top and flat at the bottom. Between Aeroplan and British Airways the infant charge differs four times over on identical inputs (10% divided by 2.5% is 4), and the reference row shows the cliff in the other direction: once the baby needs a seat, British Airways charges the full Avios, the same as an adult award. At the three programs charted, a baby with no seat is a small add-on and a baby with a seat is an adult passenger.

The second birthday and the return flight

Every rule in the table assumes the infant is under two for the whole trip. American's page says so directly: the infant must be under 2 for the duration of the trip, and a child who turns 2 during a trip needs their own seat for the remainder of it. Aeroplan's policy says children over 2, or turning 2 partway through the itinerary, require their own seat and Flight Reward reservation, while its infant clause gives the age at time of travel. Virgin Atlantic's reward seats page says under two at the time of travel, and Singapore's redeem page gives the infant age on the date of the flight. Delta's infant page lists a child who turns 2 during the trip among the reasons to buy the child a ticket.

On a round trip with a gap of several weeks, a baby who is 23 months old at the outbound flight can be 24 months old at the return. The add-on that was 2,500 points a direction at Aeroplan becomes, for the leg or the whole itinerary the program counts, a second adult-priced seat. In the illustrative numbers used here, that is 100,000 points one way against 2,500, a jump of 97,500 points for each affected direction.

Two planning moves follow from the wording, and both come with a question for the program rather than a promise. Ask whether the age is judged for the whole award or for each leg, because American says trip, Aeroplan says journey, and Virgin and Singapore say time or date of travel. And if the return date is flexible, check the baby's birthday before choosing it; a return a week earlier can be the cheaper booking.

What a child of two and over costs

Past the second birthday the pages we read converge. British Airways' clause 15.4 says children aged two or older, and infants who need their own seat, are assessed the full Avios for the destination. Singapore's redeem page says a child at least two and under twelve needs the same number of KrisFlyer miles as an adult. Delta's program rules say award prices, terms and conditions for children and infants are the same as for adults. Aeroplan requires the child to hold its own seat and its own Flight Reward reservation and prints no child discount.

So among the programs read, none prints a child discount on an award. That is a narrower claim than "no program discounts children": the United, Air France and KLM pages did not load, and a program we did not read may price children differently. For a family, the practical rule is to ask for the adult award price for every passenger over two and to treat any discount as a surprise to verify, not a number to plan around. Whether a child can hold an account of their own, and what a parent controls, is a separate set of rules, set out in kids' frequent flyer accounts.

Delta's partner page for Skymark awards is the exception that shows how far a single partner can sit from the program's own rule. It says a seatless infant requires no miles, an infant-in-arms ticket is issued at no cost at check-in, and infants under two who require their own seat are not eligible for award travel on Skymark. That is one Japanese carrier's terms inside Delta's program, not a policy to expect on other partners.

Where the infant gets added: online, after ticketing, or by phone

The price is half the work; the other half is the channel. The pages describe several different mechanics, and the channel matters because it decides whether you see the infant's price before you commit.

American adds an international infant after the trip is ticketed: the page says to open the trip on aa.com and choose Add infant in lap, and that taxes and a percentage of the adult fare may apply. For domestic trips it can be done during booking or after ticketing. Delta's infant page says an international infant-in-arms requires notifying Delta Reservations so the child can be listed on the ticket, while for travel within the United States the infant must be added to the ticket and the page links a step-by-step guide for doing so yourself.

Alaska's page says a domestic lap infant is added through the reservation page or by calling reservations, that long-haul lap infants on paid tickets are ticketed through a reservations agent, and that international award travel including an infant booked with an adult can be completed online. Singapore's FAQ says an infant ticket can be booked online only in the same transaction as an adult, and that for travel to the USA an infant ticket cannot be booked online if any selected flight is operated by Delta or Alaska.

Aeroplan's policy requires a ticket for the infant in every case, even where no fare applies, and does not say in that clause how it is added. Where the channel is a phone call or a post-ticketing step, you are exposed to whatever the agent quotes at that moment, so it is worth capturing the quote in writing.

Taxes and fees the infant still owes

A small points fee does not mean a small bill. Aeroplan's policy says taxes, fees and charges are assessed where applicable for infant travel. Delta's program rules say an international award may include up to $600 for foreign government taxes and fees and carrier-imposed fees, and that an award requires at least $11.20 in US government taxes and fees for domestic itineraries. Those figures describe awards generally, not the infant specifically; they show how wide the range of cash on an award can be.

Alaska lists the fees that apply to lap infants who do not have their own ticket when they travel into the United States from several countries, which its page says are listed in US dollars and rounded up to the nearest dollar. Alaska's customs and APHIS entries are $7 and $4. The regulatory amounts read for this guide differ: CBP Dec. 26-14 sets the customs passenger fee at $7.61 for Fiscal Year 2027, and 7 CFR 354.3(f) sets the agricultural inspection fee at $3.98 from October 1, 2026, so Alaska's customs entry sits below the current rate; check the amount on your own ticket. The page does not say how these combine with an award's infant charge, so treat them as a separate cash line to ask about, not as a total.

The table is from Alaska's lap infant page, read October 28, 2026, where it is printed for lap infants who travel without their own ticket; Alaska notes that fees may fluctuate with currency exchange. The totals are the sums of the listed components. For where the adult ticket's taxes come from and which charges survive on any award, the award taxes and carrier surcharges guide covers the layers the infant sits on top of.

One lap infant per adult, and what the infant ticket includes

Five pages state a cap. Aeroplan says only one infant under 2 not occupying a seat is permitted per adult travelling. American says only one infant may be seated in the lap of each ticketed accompanying adult, and that additional infants under 2 must be ticketed and occupy an infant safety seat or a separate aircraft seat. Delta's infant page says one adult passenger may only carry one lap-held infant, and its Skymark page says one infant per adult. Alaska's lap infant page says each ticketed adult may travel with one lap infant, under a heading that reads domestic travel only. The British Airways terms and the Virgin Atlantic reward seats page print no cap in the sections read.

For twins with one adult, American and Delta say the second baby needs a seat. Aeroplan's policy prints no price for a second infant. If that seat were priced as an adult award, as British Airways prices an infant who needs a seat, then with the illustrative 100,000-point adult price it would be a 100,000-point award in each direction rather than a 2,500-point add-on. Two adults travelling with two babies is the case the one-per-adult rule fits without extra cost.

American's page adds what the infant ticket includes on an international trip with the infant on a lap: one checked bag for the infant, up to 25 lbs (11 kg) and 22 x 14 x 9 in, and only one carry-on diaper bag per child. The fees that sit on top of the adult's bags are in the bags and seat fees guide.

On the pages read, the infant earns little or nothing. British Airways' terms say infant fares are not eligible for Avios and do not earn Avios, and Delta's rules exclude infants traveling without paying an applicable fare, or paying an infant fare on an international ticket, from mileage credit while crediting infants who travel on a ticket bought at the applicable fare. Delta's infant page lists wanting the child to earn miles as a reason to buy the child a ticket.

Choosing the ticketing program when a baby is on the booking

The adults' price decides the shortlist; the infant's price breaks ties. If two programs can ticket the same flight within a few thousand points for the adults, the infant line can be larger than the gap. In the illustrative numbers, the British Airways add-on on a 100,000-point-each-way trip is 20,000 Avios round trip, against 5,000 points for Aeroplan and 10,000 points for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class: a 15,000-point spread between BA and Aeroplan for one passenger who occupies no seat.

A flat fee that can be paid in cash or points is a decision of its own. Aeroplan lets you pay CA$25 or 2,500 points per direction. At 2,500 points for CA$25, paying with points values each point at 1.00 Canadian cent (25 / 2,500 = 0.01 dollars). If the points in your balance are earmarked for a use that returns more than that, pay the CA$25 in cash and keep the points. That is a comparison against a target you set, not a claim about what a point is worth.

Everything above is a reason to find the booking first. Transfers to an airline program are usually irreversible, so the order is: find the award seats, get the program to state the infant's price on that booking, and only then move points. If the infant's price is not stated before the transfer, you have moved points on a guess; how transfers to airline programs work sets out why that matters.

One structural note for groups. In the pages read, the infant travels with an adult on a reward issued by the same program: British Airways says an infant travelling with a member on a flight reward, and Aeroplan says an infant may accompany an adult travelling on a Flight Reward. A party split across two programs should therefore ask which adult's ticket the baby attaches to, a planning point developed in group award travel.

Once the infant price is known, confirm the seats exist before paying for anything. Aeroplan partner awards with bank points shows how the flat-fee program's partner space is searched, which is where its 2,500-point infant rule would apply to partner space.

Before you ticket the adults with a baby on the booking

• Write down the baby's date of birth and the last flight date, and confirm the baby is still under 2 on the final segment before ticketing.
• Ask the ticketing program for the infant add-on price on the exact award, stated in points or dollars, before any transfer; a flat fee or a share of points can be confirmed in advance, while a share of a cash fare needs the base fare named.
• Confirm whether the program adds the infant online during booking or only after the adults are ticketed; American adds international infants after ticketing.
• Check that the program can add a lap infant to a partner-operated award, because Aeroplan says partner airlines may restrict infant eligibility.
• Count babies per adult: one lap infant each on the pages read. American and Delta say an additional infant needs a seat, so ask what that seat costs on the award.
• Add the infant's taxes and fees to the cash total, including the entry fees Alaska lists for lap infants travelling into the United States.
• Keep the quote or the ticket receipt that shows the infant's line item; an agent's verbal figure is hard to defend later.