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Flying with Babies and Kids on American Airlines
Family Seating on American Airlines
American Airlines offers family seating when flying with children under 15 years of age. You will be offered to select your seats (for a fee, depending on your cabin type) when making a booking, but this is not always necessary to be seated together.
To be seated together as a family for free, when making your booking be sure that your entire family is on the same reservation. You can guarantee to be seated together by paying for your selected seats, but you can also choose to "Skip Seat Selection" for your flights to save yourself some money, and the American Airlines system will automatically recognize that there are children under 15 years of age flying on the reservation, and attempt to automatically seat your family together. Depending on the ocupancy of availability of the seats on your flight, your family will either be seated all together, or at a minimum children under 15 years old will be seated beside at least 1 adult on your reservation.
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If trying to select seats together and there are no more seats available as a group, it is better to skip seat selection and allow the system to assign seats together automatically, rather than to reserve your seats scattered around the plane.
If you have already purchased your tickets and are flying on separate reservations, you may contact American Airlines Reservations to request to be seated together.
Children Over 2 Years Old on American Airlines
All children over 2 years flying American Airlines must have their own assigned seat, and fly as a regular ticket passenger. The standard adult fare applies for all children over 2 years old flying on American Airlines.
Babies and Infants Under 2 Years Old on American Airlines
Infants under 2 years old may fly free of charge on their parent's lap (or other adult over 16 years old), but must still be added to their reservation ahead of time.
To add a lap-infant to your American Airlines reservation, you can do so when making a new reservation by clicking "Add Infant in Lap" on the passenger details page on aa.com. You can also add a lap infant to an existing reservation on aa.com by going to manage your trips, go to the "Passengers" section, and selecting "Add Infant in Lap".
When flying with an infant on your lap to international destinations (outside of the U.S.) on American Airlines, please call American Airlines reservations to add your child as a lap infant. You may be responsible to pay for some additional taxes/fees that apply to all passengers, regardless of age.
A maximum of 1 infant per adult is allowed to sit on the adult's lap - if you are flying with more than 1 infant under 2 years of age, they will have to have their own regular ticket with an assigned seat, and fly in an FAA-approved child car seat that is approved for airline travel.
Infant Flying in Own Seat on American Airlines
You may prefer that your baby fly in their own seat, using an FAA-approved Child Car Seat that is approved for airline travel, rather than on your lap. This is the safest way for your baby to fly. In this case, you will be required to purchase an individual ticket for your baby with their own assigned seat, the same way as for any other adult passenger.
Minimum Age to Fly on American Airlines
American Airlines allows babies to fly when they are as young as 2 days old, but you will be required to fly with a "Passenger Medical Form" if they are younger than 7 days old.
Only infants younger than 2 years old can fly on a parent's lap free of charge. If your infant turns 2 years old while away, they will be required to have their own purhased ticket with their own assigned seat for the return portion of your trip - they will not be able to fly back seated on your lap if they turn 2 years old during the trip. You may be asked to show proof of age when flying with an infant on your lap.
Baby Bassinets on American Airlines
Baby bassinets are available on some American Airlines flights, depending on the aircraft type. Bassinets are available when flying on 777-200, 777-300, and 787 aircraft. These are set up in the bulkhead seats. You may request a baby bassinet at the gate, and they are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, so be sure to arrive early. Baby bassinets are not available in Business and First-Class cabins.
Baby bassinets on American Airlines are limited to babies under 2 years old, and weighing no more than 20 lbs (9 kg).
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