All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
On most major airlines, kids must be at least five years old to fly alone, yet recently, infants as young as 11 months have been seated away from their parents. This week, major airlines have finally announced new policies to prevent families from being separated in the air.
"In an era where more families are working in a hybrid environment, they're traveling more often,” United Airlines’ Chief Customer Officer Linda Jojo said in a statement. “We're focused on delivering a great experience for our younger passengers and their parents and know it often starts with the right seat.”
The Chicago-based carrier announced on Monday the launch of a new dynamic seat map, which will show families traveling with kids under the age of 12 seating options next to one another, for tickets in basic economy, economy, and preferred seats. Already rolling out, the feature will be in full effect by early March. To emphasize its commitment, if adjacent seating isn’t available last minute, United will let families switch to another flight in the same cabin class where they can sit together, free of charge.
The following day, Frontier Airlines followed suit, announcing its previously made commitment that at least one parent will automatically be seated with any children under the age of 14 for no extra charge. The function will make the assignments by looking at the passengers’ ages. Parents can still choose to manually select their own seats.
“Since last October, we have been doubling down on our efforts and further enhancing our system for ensuring a parent is seated with any children under the age of 14 in their family group,” Frontier’s senior vice president of commercial, Daniel Shurz, said in a statement. “The system is working well and we are receiving positive feedback.”
While the announcement offers major relief for parents traveling with young kids, the fact that airlines got to the point where family separation became so commonplace marks a rather shocking reality of how far airlines have gone to nickel-and-dime their customers.
Scott Keyes of Going, formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights, says the problem started about a decade ago. “After years of having their lunch eaten by budget airlines, full-service airlines like Delta finally landed on their response: basic economy,” he says. In order to provide “budget-airline-like experience, but on a full-service airline,” seat selection became a premium perk, requiring extra fees to secure choice seats.
“Families traveling with young kids weren’t exempted from this requirement,” Keyes says. That often meant that if seats weren’t available, parents were forced to pay exorbitant fees for the simple privilege of sitting next to their own children. And if no adjacent seats were available, families simply had to cross their fingers and hope that understanding seatmates would be willing to switch.
The stress affects more than just the parents. “Not accommodating families can cause more issues for the crew onboard," Jan Jones of the University of New Haven’s Hospitality and Tourism Management department says. "It's in the best interest for the airlines to be more flexible.”
The issue was raised by the Department of Transportation last summer, who issued a notice “encouraging U.S. airlines to have policies that enable children to be seated adjacent to an accompanying adult to the maximum extent practicable and at no additional cost.” At the time, it admitted the number of complaints was “low,” but flagged the case of the 11-month-old.
For months, no real change took place, so President Joe Biden honed in on the issue in his State of the Union address on February 7. “We’ll prohibit airlines from charging up to $50 roundtrip for families just to sit together,” he said. “Baggage fees are bad enough—they can’t just treat your child like a piece of luggage.” Calling for the passing of the Junk Fee Prevention Act, he added, “Americans are tired of being played for suckers…so companies stop ripping us off.”
Last week, that led to a group of senators, including Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Senator Amy Klobuchar, introducing the Families Fly Together Act, with Schumer saying, “families flying together is a no-brainer.”
It took all that pressure from government for action to finally take place. “Without question this change is due to pressure from the Biden administration,” Keyes says. “Biden’s war on ‘junk fees’ got the ball rolling, and concern from airlines that a free family seating requirement may be in the offing likely led to these announcements from United or Frontier.” Both he and Jones believe all other airlines will follow suit, with Keyes pointing out that United was an industry leader in getting change fees eliminated back in 2020, and may be doing the same here with its family seating map.
Though they haven’t made sweeping new announcements, other airlines address family seating in different ways. American Airlines offers advice for families to book together under one reservation as far in advance as possible. “It’s better to skip seats than to choose just a few seats or seats scattered throughout the cabin," the Dallas-based carrier says. "Our gate agents can try to reseat you, but getting seats together the day of travel is difficult.”
JetBlue has similar advice, saying it will “do our best,” adding that reservation crew members may be able to help, but a third-party service fee may be required. Alaska Airlines and Delta keep their statements general, both saying they’ll “strive” to seat families together, but ultimately direct passengers to contact agents for options.
Breeze Airways was a rare U.S. carrier that addressed the issue last July, issuing a release reminding travelers that it has had a complimentary family seating policy since the airlines' inception in May 2021. “As a dad of two little girls, this policy is something I—and everyone in our organization—truly values,” the company’s COO Lukas Johnson said at the time. Those traveling with kids under the age of 12 can select seats together for free while booking in the family section.
Whatever the actual policy is at the moment for each airline, Jones suggests calling before booking to best understand the options. “Sometimes booking exclusively online can be more stringent and less flexible than talking to an actual agent,” she says.