Happy Ending For Family Forced To Pay $1,000 To Fly Son Home On Second Birthday

BOSTON (CBS) - Jack Rooney has no idea how much his parents had to pay get him home from Ireland on his 2nd birthday.

Jack and his parents had flown to Ireland for Jack's grandmother's funeral in July. Jack was booked as an infant for $204 for the round trip.

But when the Rooney's got to the Dublin Airport to return home six days later, Jack's mother Jennifer says, "The man at check in went through all of our paperwork and looked at Jack's passport and said is it your birthday today? Are you two? And then proceeded to send us to customer service."

The Rooney's were told Jack had to pay up for a seat. According to Jennifer, "The customer service representative said there was nothing we could do, we couldn't argue with them we just had to shell out the $1,000."

The family had to be separated for their return flight home as well, Jennifer says.

Aer Lingus told the Rooney's the policy is on their website.

It states ages 6-24 months, tickets are 10% of the adult fare. Age 2-11 years, there is a fare change if a child is over two for any part of their trip.

But Jennifer says she never saw the fine print, especially because she was booking a sudden bereavement trip.

We reached out to Aer Lingus and late Thursday afternoon, we received this response:

"Our website advises that if a passenger is between two and eleven years of age during any part of their journey, they must purchase a seat or alternatively make two separate bookings; one for the outbound and one for the return. While reviewing fare and flight terms and conditions is the responsibility of the customer, given the circumstances under which the booking was made, we will honor the original infant fare. Aer Lingus will continue to review its communication process of its policies."

The Rooneys say they are relieved and grateful to hear now they will be getting their $1,000 back.