Booking a holiday without knowing D.O.B

[Mark8815]

Good evening, I’ve sent a message to TUI a few days ago but as of yet haven’t had a reply (I know they’ll be very busy)
Question is, I’m trying to book a holiday for next year, my daughter is due to be born in April this year, which means she will be 1 on the holiday I’m wanting to book. Does anyone know what I do to book without knowing the date of birth yet? If they’re under one year old there is an option to select if not born yet, but not when they’ll be 1 year old.
Any help would be great.

[PH User]

I wouldn't take a 1 year old on a flight!

[ThunderSpook]

I believe they let you book it with an approximate date and then update later.

[Mark8815]

PH User said:

I wouldn't take a 1 year old on a flight!

For what reason?

[PH User]

Mark8815 said:

PH User said:

I wouldn't take a 1 year old on a flight!

For what reason?

Is this your 1st child?

[Mark8815]

PH User said:

Is this your 1st child?

No my 3rd, all of which have been on flights from 6 month old.

[PH User]

Mark8815 said:

PH User said:

Is this your 1st child?

No my 3rd, all of which have been on flights from 6 month old.

Fair enough good luck to you

[jwilco]

I'd just go with the due date and then contact them when you have an actual DOB to update it. To be honest, the DOB is not something that's generally checked - just the name and picture on the passport... Not that I'm suggesting you leave it incorrect.

[jwilco]

PH User said:

I wouldn't take a 1 year old on a flight!

PH User said:

Is this your 1st child?

PH User said:

Fair enough good luck to you

Thanks for the valuable contribution.

[rdjohn]

PH User said:

I wouldn't take a 1 year old on a flight!

Some years ago, the couple in the bungalow next door to us had done that with an 18-month old child.

The baby caught some form of dysentery . It was a life, or death scenario.

[PH User]

jwilco said:

Thanks for the valuable contribution.

And what has this post added?

[Chucklehead]

In my experience, most airlines just said to wait until the baby is born and they will then add for a nominal fee post-booking. It's more challenging if you want to book a seat at the same time though - and if it's not cost prohibitive, i'd suggest you do unless it's very short and you can time take off with the usual sleeping pattern (which you won't know yet!).

I booked a flight with my daughter before she was born but don't remember having any particular issues. Are you definitely going to need DoB at purchase?

[Mark8815]

Chucklehead said:

In my experience, most airlines just said to wait until the baby is born and they will then add for a nominal fee post-booking. It's more challenging if you want to book a seat at the same time though - and if it's not cost prohibitive, i'd suggest you do unless it's very short and you can time take off with the usual sleeping pattern (which you won't know yet!).

I booked a flight with my daughter before she was born but don't remember having any particular issues. Are you definitely going to need DoB at purchase?

Hello, thanks for your input. Yes I need the D.O.B upon booking, if I was going when she was under 12 months old then I could just tick the “hasn’t been born yet” box, but as she will be over 1 I need to put in her D.O.B. I’ve joined Twitter and sent them a message on there too so hopefully can get it cleared up soon so I can get it booked.
Thanks again.

[jodypress]

Mark8815 said:

Chucklehead said:

In my experience, most airlines just said to wait until the baby is born and they will then add for a nominal fee post-booking. It's more challenging if you want to book a seat at the same time though - and if it's not cost prohibitive, i'd suggest you do unless it's very short and you can time take off with the usual sleeping pattern (which you won't know yet!).

I booked a flight with my daughter before she was born but don't remember having any particular issues. Are you definitely going to need DoB at purchase?

Hello, thanks for your input. Yes I need the D.O.B upon booking, if I was going when she was under 12 months old then I could just tick the “hasn’t been born yet” box, but as she will be over 1 I need to put in her D.O.B. I’ve joined Twitter and sent them a message on there too so hopefully can get it cleared up soon so I can get it booked.
Thanks again.

I had something similar back in 2017. Son was due in May and we were booking flights to Brazil for Dec 2017 back in early Jan with BA. They were pretty helpful. Put in a rough DOB, then there was no charge to change it. To be fair my son was going to be about 6 months old by the time we flew so wouldn't need a seat but a bassinet.

[//j17]

rdjohn said:

PH User said:

I wouldn't take a 1 year old on a flight!

Some years ago, the couple in the bungalow next door to us had done that with an 18-month old child.

The baby caught some form of dysentery . It was a life, or death scenario.

Are you suggesting the flights caused the dysentery?!?! The baby could have caught it any time/any where and still been in a life or death scenario. OK, maybe occuring while ON the flight would have limited how quickly they could reach medical assistance - but in critical cases planes will divert to the nearest airport and will probably get there quicker than if it had occured on a longer ferry crossing, say Portsmoth/Bilbao while in the middle of the Bay of Biscay.

[rdjohn]

//j17 said:

rdjohn said:

PH User said:

I wouldn't take a 1 year old on a flight!

Some years ago, the couple in the bungalow next door to us had done that with an 18-month old child.

The baby caught some form of dysentery . It was a life, or death scenario.

Are you suggesting the flights caused the dysentery?!?! The baby could have caught it any time/any where and still been in a life or death scenario. OK, maybe occuring while ON the flight would have limited how quickly they could reach medical assistance - but in critical cases planes will divert to the nearest airport and will probably get there quicker than if it had occured on a longer ferry crossing, say Portsmoth/Bilbao while in the middle of the Bay of Biscay.

Never had kids so not an expert. This was in Corfu and it was a bug that was picked up there. It ruined the parent’s holiday and did not do much for ours as we ended up looking after their 4-year old, who was unaffected. It was a nice resort, so I don't think it was a general hygiene problem.

The Greek doctor treating the baby said that their digestive systems are very underdeveloped (why they drink milk?) at that age, which makes them much more susceptible.

I think that advice from a paediatrician would be better than the PH massive. I am also aware that plenty of very young children have holidayed abroad without issue.

[Big_Dan]

If you're booking direct with the airline, it's no issue

If you're booking through one of the cheapo web based ticket resellers - I'm looking at you Netflights - it was a complete nightmare

I booked the ticket as "Baby" with the due date

When he was born, I emailed American Airlines who said, "congratulations! no charge, give us a call" which we did, only to be pushed back to Netflights who insisted

1. changes weren't possible
2. we'd have to cancel all tickets (7) and rebook at full charge
3. changes weren't possible
4. we'd have to book another ticket, but it couldn't be matched to the original booking (so baby would be flying on their own, how would that work?)
5. changes weren't possible

I got it changed eventually for a fee £100? or something, and then mysteriously our middle names all changed to "Paul" on the booking. They said we must have typed our names in wrong (clearly we didn't) and we'd have to pay the amendment charge for each person. Seemed like a scam to me ... so we just left it and called each other Paul the whole trip. Well, it amused us at the time

TLDR, make sure you book direct with the airline

[mazdajason]

I took a 3m old from Edinburgh to New Zealand for a month, you’ll be grand.

As above, book through the airline direct and it won’t be an issue. We flew with Emirates, I gave them a rough DOB when booking and then called back and updated the DOB when our daughter was born.