Last July the DOT requested that airlines allow families with kids 13 and under to be able to sit together for free on all fares.
Some airlines did that if you requested or begged for it on basic economy fares. For example, I found that United was pretty good about it, while JetBlue was much stingier.
Breeze has always allowed kids 12 and under to get seated for free next to their parents, but other airlines haven’t made that official until now.
Last month the DOT suggested that they may not require airlines to seat kids next to their families for free.
That prompted President Biden to say during his State of the Union address, “We’ll prohibit airlines from charging $50 round trip for families just to be able sit together. Baggage fees are bad enough, airlines can’t treat your child like a piece of baggage.”
The last thing the airlines want is more regulation, so I was wondering if they would just throw in the towel and make a pre-emptive policy against charging for kids seating.
And sure enough, United announced today that they will no longer charge for families to sit together on all fares, including basic economy.
Of course the benefit of making a policy without regulation is that you get to set the limits. In this case, United says that seating will be free for kids 11 and under to be seated next to an adult in their party. That’s lower than the DOT’s 13 and Breeze’s 12, though it’s better than nothing. I’d imagines that if you have 12 or 13 year olds that you can still call United to request free seating.
United says that the system will dynamically release free seats to choose from when your itinerary includes children 11 and under starting early next month. United will free up preferred seating, which is the same as regular economy seats, but closer to the front of the plane, when needed.
United will also allow free flight changes when there are no seats together for families, with no difference in fare, though the details on this policy are vague in the announcement. It’s potentially a very generous move and I have to wonder if such a policy will last if people take too much advantage of it to get moved to more expensive flights.
“In an era where more families are working in a hybrid environment, they’re traveling more often – and they’re flying United,” said Linda Jojo, Chief Customer Officer for United. “We’re focused on delivering a great experience for our younger passengers and their parents and know it often starts with the right seat. We look forward to rolling out more family-friendly features this year.”
Many airlines try and use a more manual process to seat families together that can include blocking random seats or asking agents to facilitate seat swaps at the gate. Those circumstances often result in more stress and a longer boarding process for everyone.
Today’s announcement reflects the investments United has made in its technology and tools. Since last summer, the airline has worked to improve its ability to seat families together more easily by optimizing the airline’s seat engine to prioritize families who did not have seats assigned before their day of travel and prioritize adjacent seating for families during schedule changes, aircraft swaps or irregular operations.”
United says that Economy Plus, business, and first class are not available for family seating, though United has opened up free Economy Plus seating for families with young children that requested it from a manager when no other seats were available.
Now it’s only a matter of time before other airlines match this policy, which is certainly better for them than having it enshrined in law.
President Biden also railed against resort fees, but I don’t expect anything to actually come from that. As long as they’re properly disclosed, they’re unlikely to be legislated away, no matter how much travelers despise them.
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45 Comments On "Finally! United Will Officially Offer Free Advance Seating Assignments Next To Your Kids On All Fares!"
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How would getting rid of resort fees help?
Wouldn’t it just drive prices higher?
Unless your using points…
Why would getting rid of resort fees make prices higher?
Because they would just raise prices to compensate for losing the money from the resort fees.
Again, how does that drive prices higher?
A hotel that now is 450+50 resort fee will charge 500 now we pay the same so wouldn’t help. Not higher as more then now but the same
Helps for points if nothing else.
But it’s also harder to raise base rates.
If there is more transparency, then people would be able to comparison shop more easily which will in in-turn drive the rates lower.
the total will still be the same..getting rid of resort fees will not lower the total bill
Maybe, maybe not. But it will help for points stays.
If true, why bother charging a resort fee now instead of simply raising prices? Logic tells us there is a cap how much they can raise their base rate and try to compensate by charging a resort fee.
Would they not just raise the nightly price?
Bc if they charged $50 resort fees, they will now make the base rate $50 higher
Who is president Biden?
AC automatically sat my family together on a ticket I just booked last week to TLV in September and emailed me letting me know.
Not because they’re generous…
Canada actually passed a law requiring it for kids under 12.
British airways for years seats families together,
is that British law?
$28 daily Resort fee: free usage of fax machine, free USA Today in the lobby, 1 free bottle of water, and towels for usage by the beach. Yup, I really need that fax machine in 2023 and for $28!
Don’t forget those free local phone calls…
$300 for the room plus a $28 resort fee.
Let’s BAN RESORT FEES!!!!
New Price $328 plus free resort fees!
Congratulations politicians — helping Americans every step of the way.
I prefer this. Clear upfront pricing and easer to search based on price form Expedia and the others.
Booked my Passover flights last week in Basic Economy. Is it worth calling to see if they can confirm seating next to my kid, or are they not implementing for another month?
It has already been doable over the phone, unofficially.
Thanks!
can confirm, just got refunded for seats booked on basic economy a month ago…
How come only in America and the fancy carriben island do they have resort fees? Cancun Europe duabi etc have no resort fees and usually free parking
I could see resort fees needing to be included in an all on fee, same as airfare.
How would this work for say a family of eight with two children under 12? Who gets to sit together?
I think that as long as anyone is that age, it will allow everyone to select seats.
I can’t imagine that will last, at least on EWR-TLV and the like. That means most frum people won’t have to pay for seating when traveling with family until they are in their 50’s. 🙂 (And possibly never, because there’s always grandchildren to bring along.)
It would be easier and fairer to just allow each child under 11 to be near one adult
So if one adult and two kids, all three can sit together but if there are two adults and two kids, they may have to split up
That seems reasonable and no kid would be away from a parent (which was ridiculous). Let’s be fair to people traveling with kids and those traveling without.
Ridiculous…so just because one has kids he can buy cheaper tickets and get free seats, but if I go with my wife we have to pay for higher fares to get seats??
This is the most absurd “problem” that we are solving. Seats were always available for families you just had to buy REGULAR seats, not cheapo seats.
Agreed! I don’t understand all of the complaints. Until now, if I wanted to travel with my kids, I would have to buy regular seats so that we can sit together. When I traveled with just my wife, I was able to purchase the Basic Economy seats. One of the many ways that kids cost money. It should not be a guaranteed right unless you pay for it.
I wonder if this also applies to baby seats, Usually we carry our baby.
Would be cool if we were allowed to just bring the baby seat instead
POS airlines needs DOT ruling to do something that is common sense and right
President Biden also railed against resort fees, but I don’t expect anything to actually come from that. As long as they’re properly disclosed, they’re unlikely to be legislated away, no matter how much travelers despise them.
the issue is that when comparing hotel prices they don’t show the resort fees ion the initial page until you click to pay penalizing hotels that don’t have them ( as many people once they get to the payment screen will still buy the room )
If they required what is required by the airlines that the full price is shown immediately when searching for the fare I don’t think people would care ,the issue is that they are hidden until you come to pay
If I book one seat in Economy plus will all my kids under 11 get those seats as well?
No.
I don’t see the fr| flight changes becoming out of hand, because they will only allow you to change from a flight with no adjoining seats to a flight that does have adjoining seats, which would typically be an emptier and therefore cheaper flight.
I actually booked with united a month ago for me and wife and kid and was gonna call when there were no available seats next to each other but when I looked back at the reservation i saw that we were automatically seated together in preferred seats
Looks like it just offered the kids to sit next to 1 adult. Doesn’t look like the rest of the family, kids 12+ and other parent will get access to these seats.
I booked basic on Delta. Would they Gove me seats together if I call?
I wish all airlines world wide will follow this shortly,
I’m actually now busy with this, I booked a flight for Passover NYC-VIE and I called the airline already a few times begging them if they could give me seats now because I’m traveling with my 2 toddlers too and they said, no. only from 47 before the flight it’s free of charge,
But how Many times when you go online a day before the flight to select/change seats and you see all over around 1 or 2 seats together selected and there is no much left for all together a lot of times and I’m not even talking about worse seats as well, why should those ppl suffer we pay the same as others and this is reg economy not economy light (basic) it would be fair to give it for families traveling with kids under 12 for free of charge when booking the ticket.
Btw anyone with an idea or experience how I could get Austrian letting me select seats now?
traveled with my kids last month on united. there were no seats next to each other at all. Called them and they put us all together. no issues. The following week traveled with my father. again no seats next to each other, called them and united gladly put us next to each other. no issues. loved speaking to united. very helpful
My kids are just over age 12. It feels unfair they can’t sit together, I think all families should be allowed to sit together or at LEAST anyone under 18.
Did American Airlines or Delta match this requirement?