'Kids should sit with their parents': Petition urges airlines to seat families together for free

Travelers buying airline tickets today are increasingly faced with a costly decision: pay up for seat assignments or risk not sitting together on the plane.

Blame the proliferation of pricey airline seat selection fees, which have spread from no-frills airlines like Spirit and Frontier to major carriers including Delta, United and American, and the advent of basic economy tickets. The latter don't come with a free advance seat assignment, and airlines routinely try to scare travelers into buying a pricier regular economy ticket (which may or my not come with a free seat assignment) or into paying a fee for seat assignments.

Anna Laitin, director of financial policy for Consumer Reports' advocacy arm, said it's a calculation travelers with younger children should not have to make.

The organization last week launched an online petition urging American, Delta and United to allow adults traveling with children 13 and younger to sit together without paying a fee. The initial goal was 25,000 signatures, which was quickly surpassed. On Monday, the number of signatures was approaching 45,000.

The plea: "I expect you to put safety over profits, and seat children with their families without charging them extra for it.''

A Consumer Reports review of more than 130 complaints submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation on family seating issues found that airlines have separated or suggested separating children as young as 2 years old from their parents on a flight.

Laitin said the number of complaints lodged is small compared with complaints on topics including mishandled bags, but that the tales are worrisome:

• A United Airlines passenger traveling on a basic economy ticket from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Chicago in 2017 said the airline assigned the child an aisle seat next to a stranger. "Requiring families to pay for upgraded tickets to sit with their children is a deliberate tax on families,'' the passenger said in the complaint. "It was one thing to separate the parents but to separate children from parents is nothing short of disgraceful.''
• An American Airlines passenger traveling from Dallas to Florida in 2017 said the airline tried to separate three children, ages 2, 6 and 8, from the parents. "My 2-year old has never flown before and is still in diapers,'' the complaint states. "It is not at all reasonable that a person would allow their baby to sit among strangers on a  three-hour flight.''
• Another American Airlines passenger traveling with his wife and two children, ages 7 and 2 1/2 , in 2016 said the airline assigned the family four seats, none of them together. "We kept being told that the issue would be addressed at the gate but it never was,'' he said. "I do not know how American expected my 2.5-year-old to sit by himself. My 7-year old also had a difficult time. Thanks to a kind family, we were able to get two seats next to each other. When I wrote a letter to American about this, all they said was it was a busy flight. When I booked the tickets, I was unable to book seats together.''
• A Delta Air Lines passenger flying from Atlanta to Fort Myers, Florida, a week after Thanksgiving in 2017 said her family of four, including an 8-month-old and a 2-year-old, were each assigned middle seats that were away from each other. "We attempted to rectify the situation with both the gate agent and flight attendant and were rudely rebuffed,'' the complaint says. "Neither would switch our seats and the flight attendant even claimed that children can sit alone. I made a complaint to Delta directly and was contacted by them via phone where that policy was reiterated. It is deeply disturbing that an airline can have a policy where young children (under the age of 3) can sit by themselves with strangers."

And they keep coming. Consumer Reports has collected more than 400 complaints since it set up a site last fall where travelers can simultaneously lodge complaints with the organization and the DOT. 

Airlines have frequently asked other passengers if they are willing to switch seats to help accommodate families but, travelers today who have paid a fee to seat in a specific seat are reluctant to move, Laitin said. 

And Twitter is filled with passenger complaints. Last week, St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Dexter Fowler,who has nearly 275,000 followers, took Delta to task for separating his 6-year-old daughter from her mother on a flight because "you did not want to inconvenience other adult passengers by asking them if they would switch seats.'' (The tweet has since been deleted because, Fowler said, the "situation was handled.'') 

The petition says separating children from parents or other adults they're traveling with is a safety hazard for the child and other passengers, especially during an in-flight emergency. It's different than, say, separating spouses or couples traveling without children.

"If you and your spouse are separated on the plane and there's an emergency, you can both take care of yourselves,'' Laitin said. "If there's an emergency on the plane and my child is 10 rows away, I am going to disrupt the plane to get to my child.''

Consumer Reports tried to get the DOT to establish a policy requiring U.S. airlines to enable adult and young family members to sit together at no additional cost, but following a review of the matter dictated by 2016 federal legislation, the DOT said a seating policy isn't required given the small number of complaints.

"It was really surprising to us that the DOT took no action,'' Laitin said.

The agency said it is reviewing complaints on a regular basis and that through June 2019, the number of complaints is still low.

To help families with the issue, the DOT did add a section on family seating tips to its website. The agency all but says not to buy basic economy tickets, noting that they "may not meet the needs of families with young children.''

The site does not note, however, that travelers are not guaranteed the ability to reserve a free seat assignment when booking a regular economy ticket. Its advice: Book tickets as far in advance as possible and put family members traveling together on the same reservation.

Representatives for American, United and Delta, the initial targets of the petition because they received the most complaints, said they have taken steps to ensure families booked together, sit together.

United spokesman Charlie Hobart said United started automatically scanning reservations for passengers traveling with children on the same itinerary to find any cases of seats not assigned so they can work to seat them together before check-in whenever possible.

"It's in everyone's interest to make sure that families are seated together,'' he said. 

In addition to reducing passenger anxiety, Hobart said, it smooths things out for United agents at the gate and flight attendants during boarding.

American spokesman Ross Feinstein said the airline has spent a "considerable amount of time'' on the issue, developing a system to ensure children younger than 15 are seated with an adult.

The airline does this two ways. Beginning 48 hours after a ticket is purchased, American's computer system scans reservations for families traveling with children who don't have a seat assignment and automatically sits children with at least one adult in the party, he said.

American also blocks a certain number of seats for assignment at the gate to help families and others who need seats at the last minute. On a typical Boeing 737 with 160 seats, American holds 12 seats back, Feinstein said. 

"We are confident that this process works well for families who choose to fly with American Airlines,'' he said.

Delta spokeswoman Maria Moraitakis said in a statement: "Regardless of the type of ticket purchased, Delta works with customers on a case-by-case basis to ensure their travel needs are met. When customers have seating questions, we encourage them to reach out to us as soon as possible to allow for the opportunity to address their concerns."