- What’s the Problem?
- Is there a Secret / Hack to Buying a Child Ticket And Upgrading It to Adult
- How Can I Upgrade The Child Ticket to Adult Ticket?
- Can I Upgrade A Child Ticket From Resale Portal?
- Do I have to Upgrade My Child Ticket If I Am Reselling?
UPDATED: JULY 2023
Child vs Adult Seats
For the 2023 World Cup, FIFA has introduced child and adult tickets. We aren’t sure if this is the first time ever, but it is to our knowledge. It seems from reading through comments and pages, that it may be a more common practice for the host nations than it is throughout the world.
You can read our article that discusses tickets for 2023, pricing, etc but the gist is, a child ticket can be bought at a discount to accompany an adult ticket purchaser. This would be available for 2 – 16 year old children.
If you’re curious how tickets will be assigned for child and adult tickets, see our articles on the mobile app and finding your seat location.
What’s the Problem?
First, do not fret, Read below for the solution.
Well, with every good intention, there’s unintentional consequences. We have read stories of people that have tickets assigned with adults and children separated and more annoyingly inability to resell or purchase child tickets on the resale platform.
To illustrate…you bought a ticket for you and your child to attend a match. You can no longer attend so you list the tickets on the FIFA Resale Platform. Eager fans able to attend the match see your two tickets drop but they only want one adult ticket so that is purchased. Now, the situation exists where only the child ticket is available.
Because of this, you’ll find situations like the Finals in Sydney only having child tickets available. There’s hoards of fans that want to attend but a child ticket cannot be purchased without an adult ticket to the same match being purchased. Even if you already have 1 adult ticket to a match purchased from a previous ticket request, you cannot buy a single child ticket (we have tried).
Is there a Secret / Hack to Buying a Child Ticket And Upgrading It to Adult
Actually, yes and it gets a little involved.
You must find an Adult ticket to any match at the same Stadium and same Category and add it to your cart and purchase in conjunction with the Child ticket.
Again, you cannot purchase the Child ticket separately without an Adult ticket. However, if you find an Adult ticket to a different match in the same Stadium and Same Category as that Child, the purchase will go through (until FIFA realizes there’s a hole in the logic of their system).
Now you have an Adult + Child ticket.
Once you have the Child ticket to the match you want, see below for how to upgrade it to an Adult.
In this instance, if you upgraded after purchasing on the resale portal, you’d then have 2 adult tickets and can post 1 for resale.
How Can I Upgrade The Child Ticket to Adult Ticket?
According to the Ticket Resale Policy (that is linked so you can read the entire documentation from FIFA)…
YES, you can!
UPDATE: You can now find “Exchange Tickets” in your FIFA Ticket Portal if you are in possession of a child ticket. Then follow the steps from there.
Alternative Way:
Highlighting Sections 4.2 and 4.3 (see below) – contact fwwc2023.ticketing.enquiries@tickets.fifa.org to upgrade the child ticket into an adult ticket, where you will of course have to pay the difference in ticket price.
Sections 4.2 and 4.3 state:
4.2 The Original Ticket Purchaser may submit any number of Tickets to the Resale Platform
intended for Guests whilst retaining Tickets for their own use. If the Original Ticket
Purchaser wishes to submit their own Ticket to the Resale Platform, they must submit all
FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ General Public Ticket Resale Policy 3
other Tickets purchased by them for the same Match. In accordance with the GP Terms of
Sale, Guests are not permitted to attend any Matches without the Original Ticket
Purchaser. In the case that not all Tickets for a given Match are successfully resold on the
Resale Platform, the Original Ticket Purchaser shall still be required to attend the Match.
4.3. In accordance with the Terms of Use, each children’s Ticket must be utilized with an
accompanying adult Ticket. Therefore, without prejudice to Clause 4.2 above, if the Original
Ticket Purchaser purchased one or several children’s Tickets and wishes to submit all their
adults Tickets to the Resale Platform, they must also submit all children’s Tickets
purchased by them for the same Match. In the event that all adult Tickets are sold but the
children’s Ticket(s) remain unsold, the Original Ticket Purchaser must, in order to use such
Tickets, contact the customer care service promptly and sufficiently in advance of the
Match at fwwc2023.ticketing.enquiries@tickets.fifa.org to upgrade the children’s
Ticket(s) into adult Ticket(s) (including making all necessary payments for such upgrade).
FIFA AUS/NZL and FIFA shall bear no responsibility if a children’s Ticket cannot be utilized
(including because the accompanying adult Ticket has been resold).
Can I Upgrade A Child Ticket From Resale Portal?
So if you purchased an adult and child ticket in the resale portal and want to upgrade the child ticket to adult (so you would have 2 adults vs 1 adult + 1 child) then yes, this is all still valid.
Do I have to Upgrade My Child Ticket If I Am Reselling?
Well…it doesn’t specifically state that you have to. Perhaps you may intend to resell the tickets, upgrade them and then realize you can attend.
However, it feels the best practice overall here to guarantee you resell your child seats (and for the sanity of all fans around the world) though is to upgrade the child seats if you plan to resell to list all your tickets as adult. This especially rings true if you are listing tickets for resell to a very in demand match, like the finals.
Will FIFA really let seats go empty and unsold?
The optics of this don’t seem possible, though, technically, the tickets were originally sold and the official statement on tickets sold will be true; however, our guess (or more accurately, hope) is these will be upgraded to adult tickets the day of the match.
Have You Successfully Upgraded Your Child Ticket to Adult Ticket?
Comment below with your experience and any other tips to help others and we can adjust the article if the actual steps vary from what’s in the Ticket Resale Policy.
12 thoughts on “How To: Upgrade A Child Ticket to An Adult Ticket for 2023 World Cup”
Probably a silly question but…I’ve been given two adult tickets for Sunday’s Women’s final. Whoop whoop! Can I take my 8 yr old on an adult ticket? Or does he have to have a child’s ticket? I’ve seen lots of articles on upgrading a child’s ticket to an adult one and everything else says he has to have a child’s ticket but given the price has been paid in full for an adult, surely it could be used by a child, we’d just have overpaid, is that right? Or am I missing something?!?!??!
Hi Sarah! First, that’s awesome! 🙌 But yes. You can take your child in on an adult ticket. The logic makes sense and I have seen others in groups say there’s no problems. I highly doubt fifa would have a process for handing money back to downgrade a ticket. Have a great time together!
Is there any way I can purchase two child resale tickets and upgrade one of them to an adult ticket? My son is keen to go for a match.. but there are no tickets available for any of the them in Melbourne (just two more being played here)
Hi Laura!! You can buy two child as long as you have an adult when checking out as well. Unfortunately you cannot only buy two children, if that makes sense. Hope you find a ticket and attend the match you want!
I’ve just gone on to check if I have the exchange option – confirming for me that I can’t see it on the FIFA app but can on the phone browser app.
Except….. it’s telling me that there’s no available price option to select for my exchanges!!! I tried again with a different ticket and the adult option came up……. I figured this was maybe the particular aforementioned ticket was different for some reason. But now I have tried them all and they are ALL now coming up with “no options” and spitting an info blurb about accessibility tickets and their purchase conditions …… except non of our tickets are accessibility ones (unless FIFA has reclassified the seating plan when we purchased!)
HELP!!
Hi Ange. You should reach out directly to FIFA via fwwc2023.ticketing.enquiries@tickets.fifa.org.
I have seen that this email address is monitored and helpful…wishing you luck!
Where is the ‘exchange tickets’ in the fifa ticket portal?
Hi Joe!
I am typing in a few ideas in case one helps after reading other people’s success stories:
1. First, make sure you are logged into the FIFA ticketing site not the FIFA account site. These are 2 separate sites with separate login screens so you need to be logged into the ticket portal.
Then go to the menu in the top (top left hand, 3 horizontal stripes in my mobile view) and choose ‘Exchange tickets’.
2. Ironically, I have also seen people say this only appears when logging into the ticket portal via desktop so try that.
3. I have also seen people say if you are in tickets account, that it is only in the regular tickets portal and not the resale portal.
4. Lastly, the article also mentions an email address and people have said this email account has been responsive.
I do not have a child ticket to personally try so rely on the community and sharing so others can benefit. Hope one of these works!
“However, it feels the best practice overall here to guarantee you resell your child seats (and for the sanity of all fans around the world) though is to upgrade the child seats if you plan to resell to list all your tickets as adult. This especially rings true if you are listing tickets for resell to a very in demand match, like the finals.””
As the reseller, aren’t you going to be out of pocket by upgrading the ticket from child to adult and then reselling them as adult less the resale fee of 10%. If that’s the case as a reseller of a child ticket, what’s the incentive to upgrade? maybe i’m missing something in the math… example: child face value is $30; upgrade to adult is another $30. You can resale for $60 or $66. Your net is $66 – 10% = $59.40. You spent original $30+ $30 upgrade – total of $60.. your out of pocket $0.60 (small) but why go through all that to begin with… help?
People buying tickets on resale platform cannot buy a child ticket unless an adult is accompanying it. An adult ticket can be purchased by anyone at any time. Meaning, if you sell 1 adult and 1 child, it is possible that only the adult sells and child one does not or it takes longer. It is only a possibility so paying $0.60 to mitigate that possibility is up to seller. For games that do not have high demand, then perhaps selling the child ticket as a child is the best way to mitigate risk. It’s a matter of match demand and personal opinion. Hoping that helps you make your decision. Best of luck and hope you have a great experience!
I bought a solo adult ticket (via resale platform) in a different section to the 3 children’s tickets which were together (as the purchase wouldn’t process without an adult ticket, as you noted). Afterwards, I upgraded one of the the children’s tickets to adult so we can all sit together and I will put the solo adult ticket back on resale. A bit of a risk that it won’t sell but the tickets are in the cheap section. The “exchange” option didn’t come up on my PC browser or in the app, I had to log in via the website on my phone and then it showed up.
Thanks for sharing your experience – as well as confirming one of the advice bullet points in a different comment above. Appreciate the input! 🙏 Hope you have a great World Cup!