Most US airlines currently charge to seat young children with their parents, forcing a tough choice: either spend the flight apart, or pay as much as $200 more for a family of four.
On Thursday the Biden administration proposed to do away with such “junk fees” and require airlines to seat parents next to their children where adjacent seating is available at booking.
“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. Flying with children is already complicated enough without having to worry about that,” said Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary, in a press release announcing the new rule.
“The new rule we’re proposing today, which would ban airlines from charging parents a fee to sit with their children, is another example of the Biden-Harris administration using all the tools at our disposal to lower costs for families and protect consumers from unfair practices.”
As well as the emotional burden of flying in a different location to their children, parents were having to leave them unsupervised, or ask other passengers to volunteer to move.
During his 2023 State of the Union address, Biden called on Congress to put an end to the practice.
“We’ll prohibit airlines from charging up to $50 roundtrip for families just to sit together,” Biden said. “Baggage fees are bad enough – they can’t just treat your child like a piece of luggage.”
Buttigieg has pushed airlines to voluntarily eliminate these fees, with four of 10 of the largest US airlines – Alaska Airlines, Frontier, American and JetBlue – doing so, but in its bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, Congress gave the Department of Transportation the authority to propose a new rule to eliminate the fees outright.
The proposal would also mandate passengers to receive refunds, free rebooking or other options when adjacent family seating is not available on a flight. Airlines would have to disclose the new rules and face civil penalties for violating it.
The proposed rule faces a public comment period and would not be enacted until sometime next year.
