The Biden administration is working to accelerate the elimination of fees for families boarding planes with young children after Southwest Airlines quietly expanded family boarding so that families with children up to age 13 can board together.
“Parents can find themselves unexpectedly not seated with their young child on a flight or paying large fees to sit next to their children,” the White House said in a statement on Feb.1. “The President believes no parent should have to pay extra to sit next to their child.”
When flying with specific fare types, the majority of airlines charge passengers to choose their seats in advance, which is the only way to guarantee seats together in these circumstances.
Even if your fare type allows free seat selection, the number of seats available at the time of booking will determine whether a couple can get two seats together, let alone three or more for a family.
All airlines will automatically assign you a seat for free during check-in if you don’t pay in advance for one.
Southwest Airlines is known (and often criticized) for its unusual boarding procedure, which requires passengers to choose their seats in the order they board, often resulting in a competition that makes people anxious.
The only way to increase your chances of sharing a seat on Southwest Airlines is to purchase the airline’s EarlyBird Check-In. This automatically checks you in 24 hours before your flight and secures an earlier boarding position, as well as the opportunity to select a seat of your choice, if available.
Biden made his latest appeal to Congress, after publicly reminding airlines of an existing Department of Transportation policy that prohibits charging passengers 13 years of age or younger to choose a seat next to an adult companion.
Accordingly, it appears that every airline is in violation of this rule, which raises the question of why DOT has not taken stronger action.
The agency will, according to the White House “publish a family seating fee dashboard and launch a rulemaking to ban the practice” as Biden calls upon Congress to “fast-track the ban on family seating fees so that the DOT can crack down on these practices more quickly than through a rulemaking.”