DENVER — With airline fees on the rise, two airlines are making it a bit easier for children to be seated with their parents.
Frontier and United Airlines are now taking steps towards ensuring children are being seated with at least one responsible adult in their party.
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When flying Frontier, children under the age of 14 will automatically be seated with at least one parent, at no additional charge. The airline will automatically assign seats based on family members' ages prior to the check-in window opening.
“We recognize the importance of seating children next to an adult with whom they are traveling,” said Daniel Shurz, senior vice president, commercial, Frontier Airlines. “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. The system is working well and we are receiving positive feedback.”
This follows news from United Airlines that they would be instituting a similar policy.
According to United, a new dynamic seat map feature will make it a bit easier for children 12 years or younger to be seated with an adult in their party for free - including customers who happen to purchase Basic Economy tickets.
How it works is that the airline's seat engine will first review all available free Economy seats. If there are no adjacent seats in the free Economy cabin available during booking, it'll open up free upgrades to available Preferred seats instead.
Should there be no adjacent seats left, United's policy also lets travelers switch for free to a new flight (going to the same destination) that has the adjacent seat availability in Economy. According to United, no fare difference will be charged in these circumstances.
"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."
United Polaris, First Class, and Economy Plus are exempt from the new family seating policy change. The policy change is due to go in effect sometime early-March, the airline said.
What about other airlines?
- Delta Airlines has said that they'll strive to seat family members together upon request. The airline has a similar dynamic seat map technology in which blocks off certain rows for larger parties of three or more people traveling on the same reservation.
- American Airlines' website says that they recommend families to book far in advance and on the same reservation in order to get the best chance of sitting next to one another. Their system will search for adjacent seats automatically before the day of departure for those unable to select seats, unwilling to pay for seats, or flying on a Basic Economy fare. If seats are limited on the day of travel, American says they'll assign children under 15 so that they're sitting next to at least 1 adult.
- Southwest Airlines does not offer assigned seating. They do however offer "Family Boarding", which takes place after the "A" group has boarded and prior to the "B" group being boarded onto the plane.
- JetBlue recommends that families looking to sit with one another should book as early as possible and to select seats prior to traveling.
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