Should An Infant With No Seat Have To Pay A $320 Fuel Surcharge?

By Meg Marco

Here's an interesting situation. When babies fly domestically, they fly for free — but international flights require a ticket and, apparently, a huge fuel surcharge.

From Elliott.org:

The agent asked for our ticket for our son. I will not go into all of the details, but an hour later (and 35 minutes to flight departure), we were forced to pay 332 euros ($423.10) to get my son a ticket so he could return back to the states.

Words cannot describe my outrage at the time, especially the justification of the fees ($320 fuel surcharge - $160 each way??!!). How can they legally charge that much when our ten pound infant does not even have a seat?

Delta responded to this complaint with a form letter explaining that kids need a ticket — which is 10% of the regular fare. The only problem? He'd already paid that fee when he booked the tickets. The $320 was explained to him as a fuel surcharge.

Should passengers who don't even get a seat and weigh 10 lbs be charged this fee? Seems a little silly doesn't it?

Waaaa! Baby gets socked with surprise $320 fuel surcharge on Delta flight [Elliott] (Thanks, Shaula!)
(Photo: So Cal Metro )

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