Airlines to Seat Kids Next to Parents at No Extra Cost

I don’t get this. If a family plans early enough, why can’t they get three in a row? If the seat is available, book the child. Seats do not differentiate between small bottoms and large bottoms. The seat is occupied and paid for at a normal fare. Perhaps, I am missing something here, so fill me in on the issue. This is not a have to, it is a common sense solution. Tempest in a teapot.

Proposal on family seating comes as officials have raised concerns about passengers potentially racking up extra costs for flights

Biden Administration Pushes Airlines to Seat Kids Next to Parents at No Extra Cost

by Alison Sider

Wall Street Journal

Airlines would have to allow parents to book seats next to young children without paying extra fees under a Biden administration proposal that seeks to address a major travel headache for families.

If adjacent seats are available during the booking process, the rule proposed Thursday would require U.S. and foreign carriers to let a child 13 years old or younger sit next to a parent or accompanying adult. If seats together aren’t available at booking or soon after, the airline would have to offer a refund.

“Many airlines still don’t guarantee family seating, which means parents wonder if they’ll have to pay extra just to be seated with their young child,”

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. The department said it considers family seating to be a basic part of the service that should be included in buying an airline ticket. 

The Biden administration has raised concerns previously about families potentially racking up extra fees to sit together on flights.

Still, families shouldn’t expect immediate changes. The proposal will be subject to public comment, and the rule-making process can grind on for months or longer. 

Most U.S. airlines say they already make every effort to ensure families can sit next to one another for free and don’t specifically charge a fee for families to pick seats together. Flight attendants and gate agents often try to reshuffle seating plans for parents and young children who have been seated apart. But those efforts can irritate other passengers who have paid for seats and the reseating process can make boarding more hectic.

Some carriers have updated their policies to guarantee children will be seated near an adult on the same reservation or to automatically assign adjacent seats to children and parents for free.

Still, policies vary and the prospect of being seated far from a child or having to plead with fellow passengers to make a swap can still be a source of anxiety for families preparing to fly.

Major U.S. carriers often charge extra for many ordinary seats in the economy cabin and sell some cheaper, more restrictive tickets that often don’t include advance seat assignments. It isn’t unusual for travelers booking plane tickets to encounter only a limited number of seats that can be reserved for free. The cost of locking down seats together can add up.

The Transportation Department issued a notice to airlines in 2022, urging them to make sure that children can sit next to an accompanying adult without any extra charge. President Biden mentioned the issue in his State of the Union address last year. Congress directed the Transportation Department to advance a rule on family seating in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization law passed earlier this year. 

The Transportation Department has been at odds with airlines recently over measures it says are aimed at bolstering consumer protections, with the industry in some cases arguing the rules are onerous or unnecessary. One of the government’s efforts faced a setback this week when a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a rule requiring disclosure of fees alongside airfares. 

Under the family-seating proposal announced Thursday, if adjacent seats aren’t available at booking, it would be up to families to decide whether to wait and see if anything opens up. If a parent couldn’t be assigned a seat next to a child by the time a flight begins boarding, they could sit separately or opt to be rebooked.