A child with a paid seat and a boarding pass is a passenger like any other: €250, €400 or €600 under EU261, £220, £350 or £520 under UK261. A lap infant travelling free of charge, with no allocated seat, no boarding pass and no name on the reservation, is outside the Regulation and gets nothing.
The provision that decides it
Article 3(3) says the Regulation “shall not apply to passengers travelling free of charge or at a reduced fare not available directly or indirectly to the public. However, it shall apply to passengers having tickets issued under a frequent flyer programme or other commercial programme by an air carrier or tour operator.” The UK retained Article 3 carries the same words.
Nothing there mentions age. A child is excluded only if the ticket falls into the excluded categories — and a child fare sold on the airline’s own website, at whatever discount, is a fare available to the public.
The infant ruling
The Court of Justice decided the lap-infant case by order in YE and Others v Vueling Airlines (C-686/20, 11 October 2021). Article 3(3), second sentence, means “a passenger who travels free of charge on account of his or her young age, but who does not have an allocated seat or a boarding pass and whose name does not appear on the reservations booked by his or her parents, is excluded from the scope of that regulation.” The Commission repeats the point in its current Interpretative Guidelines (C/2024/5687, OJ 25.9.2024).
Read the conditions together, because they are how the ruling is written: free of charge, no allocated seat, no boarding pass, not named on the reservation. That is the classic lap infant on a booking that lists two adults.
Where the line actually falls
Most airlines do not carry infants free. They charge an infant fee, issue a ticket number and print the infant’s name on the itinerary and often on the accompanying adult’s boarding pass. That case is not the one the Court decided, and it is not settled by any judgment we have been able to open on EUR-Lex.
The honest position: where the infant paid a fee, holds a ticket and is named on the reservation, the Vueling order does not exclude them on its own terms — but nor has the Court said they are covered, and national courts have taken different views. Claim for the infant, set out the fee, the ticket number and the name on the booking, and if the airline refuses, put the point to the national enforcement body rather than dropping it. An unanswered claim costs a paragraph.
Count the boarding passes before you write. The claim is per passenger, not per booking or per family. Two adults and two children with seats on one reference is four claims at the full band amount, and airlines routinely settle for one and hope nobody counts.
Who paid the fare is irrelevant
If a grandparent, a tour operator or a company bought the tickets, that changes nothing. In M1.R. and M2.R. v AAA (C-20/24, 6 March 2025) the Court held that a passenger is not travelling free of charge or at a non-public reduced fare where the tour operator paid the carrier at market conditions and the package price was paid to the operator by a third party rather than by the passenger. The judgment also puts the burden on the airline to prove that the exclusion applies, under national procedural rules.
Care does not depend on the fixed sum
Article 9(3) requires the airline to pay particular attention to unaccompanied children and to passengers with reduced mobility and anyone accompanying them. Meals, a hotel and the transfer to it are owed on the family’s own facts under Article 9 whatever the cause of the delay — see when an airline owes you meals and a hotel. A baby who is outside the Regulation still travels with adults who are inside it, and the room they get is the same room.
Work out the band from the amounts table, then send one delay compensation letter naming every passenger. If the airline refuses on Article 3(3), take it to the body in where to complain.
Does a child on a discounted child fare get less money?
No. Article 7 sets one sum per distance band for each passenger, and it does not scale with the fare — the same point covered in compensation on a cheap ticket. A half-price child seat carries the full €250, €400 or €600.
My infant had a paid seat of their own — do they count?
On those facts the Vueling exclusion does not apply: the infant was not travelling free of charge and did have an allocated seat. Claim for them by name, with the ticket number, exactly as for an adult.
What about an unaccompanied minor?
They hold a ticket, a seat and a boarding pass, so they are a passenger under Article 3(2) with the full Article 7 claim. Article 9(3) adds a duty of particular attention while they wait. The claim is normally made by the parent or guardian on the child’s behalf.