About to fly with your baby and wondering whether or not you can board the plane first? With a handful of upcoming flights myself, I researched the websites of every major airline (or contacted them directly in some cases) to find out which ones allow you to board first or early with an infant. Here’s what I found out:
Families traveling with infants are allowed to board first or early on almost all of the major airlines in North America and many of the major airlines around the world, including American Airlines, United, Air Canada, Luftansa, Southwest, Alaska, and JetBlue.
Notably, there are some major airlines with unclear policies on the topic of pre-boarding with an infant, including Delta and Air France/KLM. The low-cost Mexican airline Volaris does not allow pre-boarding with infants and and Spirit Airlines will allow it with an extra cost per passenger. Please see below a detailed list of the airlines that allow and do not allow pre-boarding with an infant.
Pro Tip: Just because you can board early with an infant doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. Read on to learn some of the pros and cons of pre-boarding with a baby and why you just might want to wait.
Which Airlines Allow Pre-Boarding With an Infant?
I researched the official websites of every major airline in North America and several major airlines around the world to find out which ones allow pre-boarding (or early boarding) for families traveling with an infant.
Surprisingly, there were some major airlines with notable omissions from their websites: Either there was zero information to answer this question (such as in the case of Delta and Air France/KLM) or there was no information but I was able to contact a customer service agent to give me an answer.
Hopefully the table below includes your flight information. If not, consider reaching out directly to your airline (either on a live chat from their website if that’s a possibility, or on their social media — Twitter or a Facebook DM).
| Airline | Can you board the plane early with a baby? |
|---|---|
| American Airlines | Yes. Families with children under 2 years old can ask to board early at the gate. (Source) |
| Delta Airlines | Unclear. There is no information on Delta’s website about pre-boarding with infants. Please see information below. |
| United Airlines | Yes. They allow pre-boarding for families traveling with children less than two years old. (Source) |
| Air Canada | Yes. Kids under age 6 and their family board early, before general boarding. (Source) |
| Southwest Airlines | Yes. Two adults traveling with a child six years old or younger may board during Family Boarding, which occurs after the “A” group has boarded and before the “B” group begins boarding. If the child and the adult are both holding an “A” boarding pass, they should board in their assigned boarding position. (Source) |
| Alaska Airlines | Yes. Families with children under the age of 2 can pre-board. (Source) |
| JetBlue Airways | Yes. There is pre-boarding for families with children under the age of 2. (Source) |
| Spirit Airlines | No. Passengers with infants board with regular boarding. You can purchase shortcut boarding if you want to board early on the aircraft on spirit.com for $5.99 per person each way. (Source below) |
| WestJet | Yes. There is priority boarding for passengers traveling with young children. (Source) |
| Luftansa | Yes. Families with babies and small children under 5 can pre-board. (Source) |
| Frontier Airlines | Yes. Courtesy boarding is available to families traveling with small children (under 3 years old). (Source) |
| Volaris | No. “You can board the plane depending on your boarding group” according to their Facebook messenger service. (Source below) |
| Hawaiian Airlines | Yes. Families with children under the age of 2 will receive early boarding. (Source below) |
| Air France/KLM | Unclear. There is no policy for boarding with infants made explicit on their website. |
Airlines with No Policy for Pre-Boarding with an Infant
Disappointingly, Delta and Air France/KLM have no explicit policy on either of their websites in regards to pre-boarding for people traveling with babies. I also tried to reach out to both of them on social media with no response. I don’t think a passenger should have to chase them down (e.g. go to the airport in person, or wait on hold on the phone) in order to get an answer to a really simple question like this.
For all of the other major airlines on this list, a clear “pre-boarding with a baby” policy was stated on their websites OR I was able to chat with someone on their website live chat, or on Facebook messenger and get an answer fairly quickly.
Perhaps by keeping the policy vague and unclear, they can remain flexible depending on the flight and the day. Just to be on the safe side, I would expect to not have pre-boarding with my baby if I were flying with either of these two airlines and plan accordingly.
Airlines that do NOT Allow Pre-Boarding with an Infant
Volaris, a Mexican low-cost airline, does not explicitly state on their website that they do not allow early boarding with an infant, so I reached out to them via social media and was told that “you can board the plane depending on your boarding group.” Sorry, but if you have an infant — pre-boarding is not available.
The screenshot from my conversation with Volaris is below. Apparently, they have something called a “baby combo” that you can pay for and includes priority boarding, but they don’t offer it for free.
Spirit Airlines is an ultra low-cost airline based in the United States. Their live chat feature on their website allowed me to ask about infant pre-boarding even though there wasn’t any explicit information on their website itself about this topic.
I asked if passengers flying with infants can board early and their response was that I would have to pay $5.99 per passenger each way if I wanted shortcut boarding. The screenshots from my conversation with Spirit Airlines are below.
Airlines that ALLOW Pre-Boarding with an Infant
Most of the major airlines in North America and many airlines around the world allow families traveling with babies to board early or first. Even Southwest Airlines, one the biggest low-cost carriers, has a policy (clearly stated on their website) that allows passengers with babies to board early (not first, but still!).
It’s in the airlines’ best interests to include this benefit for families. Traveling with young kids and babies can be extremely stressful and it’s easy enough for the airlines to reduce some pressure by giving families the option to board early.
Hawaiian Airlines was a bit vague, stating on their website that passengers needing assistance can pre-board, but when I reached out to ask directly, I received a response right away that they do in fact have early boarding for people traveling with babies under 2:
Why You Might NOT Want to Pre-Board with an Infant
We’ve personally almost always taken advantage of pre-boarding with our son, especially when he was really little — we started flying with him at 3 months old. But I think there are some significant reasons why some parents might want to hold off on boarding right away, even if it’s available to you.
Reasons to pre-board with a baby
Your baby is very young and doesn’t need to “burn off” any energy before settling down in the plane. Or you’re flying alone with your baby and need extra assistance from the flight crew and space in the overhead bin — This is the best reason to board early.
However, when my son was about 8 months old and I was traveling with him alone, I still decided to wait as long as possible to board (even though I needed the overhead space and extra help) because I wanted to spend as little time as possible in that tight little space with a wiggly baby.
I also wanted to take the extra time to be able to change him at the last possible moment to limit the likelihood of needing to change him on the plane.
Reasons to wait and board last with a baby
Your baby won’t have as much time to get cranky and sick of the plane. Imagine if there are delays once you’re on board, waiting on the runway — the horror!
If you have another adult traveling with you, consider splitting up at boarding: one boards first (taking advantage of that family pre-boarding) to set up your seat area and one stays with the baby at the gate until the last possible moment. This is the best case scenario and I highly recommend it if you’re not flying alone!
