United Airlines said Monday it has made it easier for families to sit together with their children without additional fees even if they are traveling on basic economy tickets.
The airline’s new seat mapping software will offer free seat assignment for children under 12 to sit next to an adult in their family, including for Basic Economy tickets.
United said the new family seating policy is made possible through investments in a new seat map feature that dynamically finds available adjacent seats at the time of booking. However, if seats next to each other are not available due to last-minute bookings or unscheduled aircraft changes, United said the family can switch to another flight for free without being charged any fare difference.
The airline plans to fully implement the new policy by early March, but in the meantime, customers traveling with children under 12 will start to see the adjacent seat option immediately.
The new policy does not apply to United Polaris, First Class, and Economy Plus seats. However, Linda Jojo, United’s chief customer officer, said the airline plans on rolling out more family-friendly features this year.
According to United Airlines, many airlines use manual processes to seat families together, such as blocking random seats or asking gate agents to facilitate seat swaps. These methods often cause stress and longer boarding times for all passengers.
United said its move reflects investments the company made in technology and tools that allow it to optimize its seat engine to prioritize seating for families who don’t have assigned seats before their day of travel. This prioritization also applies to families during schedule changes, aircraft swaps, and irregular operations.
Biden Admin Targets ‘Junk Fees,’ Family Seating
The policy is good news for parents, who have long been saddled with the added costs associated with purchasing seats in order to sit with their children on flights.Such fees have been targeted by the administration of President Joe Biden, who specifically called out carriers that charge families to sit together in his State of the Union address.
“We’ll prohibit airlines from charging $50 roundtrip for a family just to be able to sit together,” Biden said. “Baggage fees are bad enough. Airlines can’t treat your child like a piece of baggage.”
The Department of Transportation has said it’s working on rules to ban airlines from charging fees when parents want to sit with their young children.
In a July 2022 notice, the department’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP) advised U.S. airlines to overhaul their family seating policies to enable children who are age 13 or younger to be seated adjacent to an accompanying adult at no additional cost. The department noted, however, that it didn’t receive many complaints about this issue.
The department said that if airlines’ seating policies and practices are found to be barriers to children sitting next to adult family members, it would consider taking additional action consistent with its authorities. The notice set a deadline of four months from the date of the notice for the review to begin.
As part of a broader initiative to crack down on “junk fees,” the Biden administration is calling on Congress to pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which would codify regulatory efforts. However, Republicans have already signaled they aren’t on board.
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