Isn’t it frustrating when you’re flying with a child and the airline expects you to pay extra just to sit next to your kid?
What a scam! Makes you want to clench your jaw, right?
The federal government isn’t thrilled about it either. The feds recently rolled out a new online dashboard that reveals which carriers charge families additional fees — and which ones don’t — for securing seats next to one another.
President Joe Biden mentioned the issue during his State of the Union speech in February: “Baggage fees are bad enough — they can’t just treat your child like a piece of luggage,” he declared.
For a while now, travelers in the U.S. have been vocal about being split from their kids on flights. They dislike it, and they resent having to pay to fix it.
“Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We have been urging airlines to promise family seating without attaching extra charges, and now some carriers are beginning to adopt this commonsense change.”
Here’s the bottom line: Alaska, American and Frontier all guarantee adjacent seats for kids 13 and under and a traveling adult at no extra cost across all fare classes. Other carriers don’t offer that guarantee — including Allegiant, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United.
This is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ongoing effort to push airlines toward better customer service. The department has already introduced dashboards highlighting how different carriers handle passengers impacted by major cancellations or lengthy delays.
Those dashboards went live after the Department of Transportation fined several airlines for dragging their feet on refunds owed to customers when flights were delayed or canceled.
Beware of Extra Airline Charges
Whenever you book a flight, be mindful of the add-on fees. They can be unpleasantly surprising.
Low-cost carriers like Frontier and Spirit often offer very cheap base fares, but they frequently tack on charges for seat selection, extra legroom, onboard food and drinks, checked baggage, carry-ons and even printing a boarding pass at the airport. Those fees accumulate quickly.
Major carriers — the legacy airlines like Delta and United — include more in the ticket price. Still, over recent years these airlines have introduced discounted fares and begun charging for preferred seats or checked bags to stay competitive with low-cost rivals.
Before purchasing a ticket, it’s smart to check what extra costs you’re likely to encounter.
Budget Airlines: Get Low Fares but Watch for Hidden Charges
Which Airlines Promise Family Seating?
The Department of Transportation’s family seating dashboard follows a notice it issued last summer urging U.S. airlines to ensure children 13 and under are seated next to a traveling adult at no extra charge. That “notice,” however, isn’t legally binding.
At first, the feds concluded that none of the carriers guaranteed free family seating, even though most claimed they would try to keep families together when possible.
Since then, a handful of airlines have formalized guaranteed family seating as a policy.
“This new dashboard lets parents bypass airlines’ vague claims about family seating,” the Department of Transportation said. “To earn a green check on the dashboard, an airline must commit to ensuring that parents can sit beside children age 13 and younger for free if adjacent seats are available at booking.”
American Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Alaska Airlines all report offering these guarantees with some limitations. For example, the child and the accompanying adult must be booked on the same reservation.
In February, United announced an updated family seating approach, though it stops short of a full guarantee. United rolled out a “seat map” tool that helps families with kids find adjacent seats at no charge; the system dynamically locates available side-by-side seats during booking.
Because most airlines still don’t guarantee that a parent and child will be seated together without extra cost, the president has urged Congress to pass a law requiring it. Whether that will occur remains to be seen.
For now, you’ve got more information at your fingertips.
Also consider checking out useful tips like airline freebies to save on travel extras, or guidance on traveling with kids using a family car when flying isn’t the best option.
Jackson Porter (jackson.porter@example.com) is a senior writer at Savinly.
