Alaska Airlines used to be unable to book infant tickets on international awards and now they’ve got some resolution for their own flights.

Alaska Airlines used to have the worst infant award policy: they weren’t welcome

Each airline charges different amounts to have infants fly along on awards. Many charge award travelers a percentage of the going cash rate when you book a lap infant despite the fact that miles were used. Some airlines charge a hefty penalty for lap children, such as Cathay Pacific charging 25% of the cash fare for any routing that touches the United States. Typical charges tend to hover around 10% of the cash fare.

Some airlines charge the fee in points, which is typically considered a better deal. British Airways charges 10% of the mileage cost for lap infant and 10% of the fees. Air Canada, which many have heralded as one of the best, charges just 5,000 miles regardless of the flight length or cost.

To be clear, this is all for an infant who will not be taking their own seat. During the flight, the child is expected to sit in your lap or sleep in a bassinette. But there are administrative complexities that come with a passenger not occupying a seat, and ultimately that’s what you’re generally paying for.

Historically, Alaska Airlines did not have the ability to add infants on awards that left North America. Those administrative complexities, which included passing along passenger information to partners, was something Alaska never invested in. If you had an infant and were booking a flight that visited another continent, you had to phone up the operating airline and ask to add an infant. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, you’re going to have to use a different loyalty program for your flight. Or buy an award seat for your lap infant at adult prices.

It’s that ambiguity that encourages me to suggest families look elsewhere for awards.

Now Alaska Airlines can serve some lap infants

View From The Wing is reporting that Alaska Airlines is improving its lap infant policy in two ways:

• International flights booked with cash for travel on Alaska or Hawaiian can accommodate lap infants for 10% of the cash fare.
• International flights booked with Alaska Atmos miles for travel on Alaska or Hawaiian can accommodate lap infants for just the taxes.

To book these awards, you’ll need to call Alaska Atmos reservations. This doesn’t help Atmos partner awards. Those awards are still not currently bookable by Atmos phone agents.

The question that I still have is what happens during irregular operations. Say you booked an infant award using Alaska miles for travel on Alaska to Tokyo. But the Alaska flight goes mechanical. Are you not going to be able to change to one of their partners like JAL because Alaska cannot handle infant tickets?

Hopefully, Alaska will work to resolve the issue on all infant tickets and doesn’t just stop here.

Who has the best infant award policy for oneworld airlines?

Now that Alaska Airlines has improved its infant awards, which loyalty program is best for oneworld carriers? We would rank them as the following:

1. Qantas (just pay taxes)
2. British Airways (10% of the mileage price and 10% of fees)
3. Qatar Airways (10% of the mileage price but only for its own flights, unbookable with partners)
4. JAL (10% of the mileage price but only for its own flights, unbookable with partners)
5. Alaska Airlines (just pay taxes for its own flights, unbookable with partners)
6. Iberia (10% of the cash price for flights)
7. American Airlines (10% of the cash price for flights, except they charge 25% of the cash price for Cathay Pacific)
8. Cathay Pacific (10% of the cash price for flights that don’t touch the USA, 25% of the cash price for flights that do)

There are other airlines within oneworld, but we’ve had problems tracking down Finnair’s policy and the other miles are hard to come by.

Even with Alaska’s policy as it is, we would rank Alaska’s policy is middle of the pack currently. However, that’s purely based on the limited destinations it currently has. If Alaska’s international route map expands to a respectable size, it could move as high as second place–or tied for first if they treat partners the same way Qantas does.

Still, there are quite a few other airlines within oneworld that doesn’t book infants on partner awards. Both Qatar Airways and JAL only allow members to book infant awards on their own flights. Maybe that’s why Alaska is taking its sweet time? It seems like it’s not much of a priority for oneworld in general.

Are you going to book infants on Alaska Airlines more often with this policy change?