Adding a lap infant to a Flying Blue award costs 10% of the adult cash fare, and you can generally do it online for a Flying Blue-operated flight. The one thing to know before you book: Flying Blue does not support adding a lap infant to an award ticketed on a partner airline. If your plan involves booking a partner's flight with Flying Blue miles, there are a few factors you need to take into account. This article will explain what you need to know about adding an infant to your FAir France or KLM flight, as part of our full guide on booking award flights with infants and children.

What does a lap infant cost on a Flying Blue award?

The rule is a straightforward 10% of the adult cash fare, applied to Air France and KLM-operated flights. It's not a flat mileage amount, and it's not free even on domestic European routes within the Flying Blue network, so budget for it regardless of how short the flight is.

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That 10% is calculated against the cash price of the seat you've booked, not the mileage cost. On a premium cabin redemption, this can be a meaningful number, so it's worth getting an exact quote before assuming it'll be a token fee.

Can you add the infant online, or do you need to call?

For Flying Blue-operated awards, most parents can add the lap infant online, either during the initial booking or by managing the reservation afterward. This is one of Flying Blue's more parent-friendly features, when the flight is genuinely Flying Blue's own metal.

Should the adult award be ticketed first?

Yes. Book and ticket the adult Flying Blue award first, then add the infant. This keeps the process clean and avoids the kind of processing confusion that can come from trying to add a passenger before the base reservation has settled.

Does the infant need their own Flying Blue account?

Not for the lap-infant fee itself. However, if you're also planning to use Flying Blue Family's discount for an older, seated child, the child generally needs to be part of a linked Flying Blue Family pool, which does involve setting up an account for them.

Who adds the infant on a partner award? Where Flying Blue falls short

This is the section every Flying Blue-using parent needs to read before transferring points for a partner redemption.

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Flying Blue does not support adding a lap infant to an award ticketed on a partner airline. This rules out a huge amount of the creative partner-award routing that makes Flying Blue miles appealing in the first place, since some of the best redemption value on Flying Blue comes from booking SkyTeam and other partner flights, not Air France or KLM's own metal.

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If your itinerary depends on a partner-operated flight and a lap infant, Flying Blue isn't going to be the program that gets you there smoothly. Your options are booking directly with the operating partner using a different loyalty currency, or accepting that the lap infant simply can't be added to that specific reservation through Flying Blue.

The Flying Blue Family discount for children 2 and up

This is where Flying Blue actually stands out, and it's worth knowing about even though it doesn't apply to lap infants specifically. Flying Blue Family offers a 25% discount on award tickets for children aged 2–11, across any cabin, on non-promotional award space, when the child is linked in a Flying Blue Family pool.

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If you're booking multiple seated children rather than a single lap infant, this discount is a real and meaningful saving that most of the other programs in this comparison don't offer.

What happens if the infant turns two mid-trip?

The relevant age is your child's age on each individual flight date. If your child turns two between your outbound and return flights, the return leg needs to be booked as a full child ticket, potentially at the Flying Blue Family discounted rate if they're linked in a Family pool, rather than as a lap infant.

Common booking failures parents run into

The single most common failure is transferring Flying Blue miles specifically to book a SkyTeam partner flight, expecting to add a lap infant the same way you would on Air France or KLM metal, and discovering it isn't supported. This is avoidable simply by checking the operating carrier before committing points.

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The second issue is parents missing the Flying Blue Family discount because their children weren't linked in a Family pool before booking, which means paying full award price for a seated child when a 25% discount was available.

A worked example

A family flying Air France from Paris to New York books the adult award through Flying Blue, then adds a lap infant online for 10% of the current cash fare on that route. Because the entire flight is Air France-operated, the process is smooth end to end. The same family separately books their five-year-old's seat using Flying Blue Family, paying 25% less in miles than the standard award price because the child is linked in their Family pool.

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Now compare that to a family trying to use Flying Blue miles for a Kenya Airways or other SkyTeam partner flight with a lap infant. The adult award tickets fine, but Flying Blue can't add the infant to that partner-operated reservation, leaving the family to sort out the infant fare directly with the operating partner instead.

When to call Flying Blue vs. handle it yourself

For any Air France or KLM-operated flight, handling the lap infant addition online is usually the smoothest path, and a call isn't necessary unless something goes wrong with the online tool.

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For any partner-operated award, don't wait until after ticketing to find out whether the infant can be added. Confirm the operating carrier before you transfer Flying Blue miles into a booking that depends on a lap infant being included.

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