Mar 15, 2008

So two weeks ago my grandfather, who lives in Canada, passed away. I make reservations on-line with Alaska, for my one year old son and I to fly up for the services. Since I was flying outside of the US I needed to get an emergency passport for my son. One of the requirements that I thought I needed to have (which turns out not to be the case) is the person needing the emergency passport has to have a plane ticket. Alaska doesn't put "infant in arms" on their tickets. So I call them up and ask for a new ticket indicating that I will be traveling with a child. They won't do it. Why? Because their system doesn't do that. I ask for them to just send me an e-mail. They won't do that either. The best they can do is sell me a separate seat for $900 so that he can get a ticket. My ticket was only $300.

Fortunately I was able to make it to the services and everything was fine...until I came home. When I hand my ticket to the agent at the airport she looks at my son and asks if I have a ticket for him. I say no, you guys wouldn't give me one. So she charges me an extra $10, though babies are supposedly free. I'm at the airport and it is only $10 so I don't make a big fuss, but isn't that called, "Bait and Switch"? I went with Alaska because they were the cheapest, but then they want extra money as you go, and when you're trying to catch a flight it's not like there is a whole lot of time to deal with problems.