What Ever Happened to "Babies Under 2 Fly Free"?

Around the year 1977, my younger son Brad was almost 4 years old and although we'd been smuggling him on board of airliners for free, we were really pushing the limits of babies under 2 flying for free back then, by a good two years. The last time we tried it, we were warned that we needed to purchase a ticket the next time we want him to fly. Knowing this, we still tried it one last time in 77. Hell, wouldn't you?

Here was my plan. We had almost always been hosts to Great Danes. Both my wife and myself were literally in love with the breed, as displayed earlier in this blog until the loss of both of my beloved pets and friends. Back in the 70's, we had our first set of Danes, Bogie 1 and Duchess. They were a matching set of fawns, easy to take anywhere and loved everyone and everything. Knowing this, we decided to take them to the airport for the sending off of my family. As we purchased 2 tickets for my wife and older son, we smuggled Brad through without a hitch as everyone was in awe of this matching pair of well behaved gentle giants. I heard all of the usual things. How much do they eat and you can put a saddle on them? I smiled and answered questions as my free loading son boarded the plane without a thought or a problem.

The following year we had to buy Brad a ticket because by then he wanted to sit in the smoking section!