Free family seating on airplanes to be required under new DOT rule

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has proposed a new rule to require airlines to seat young children next to their parent or adult travel partner at no charge, assuming adjacent seating is available when the tickets are booked.

This was expected; the only question was when. Congress included plans for this rule as part of the FAA Reauthorization law passed in May. The law said proposed rules were due within 180 days, or by about Nov. 12, 2024. Free family seating could take effect early next year.

“Mandating fee-free family seating would lower the cost of flying with young children — saving a family of four as much as $200 per roundtrip if seat fees are $25,” the announcement said.

“Many airlines still don’t guarantee family seating, which means parents wonder if they’ll have to pay extra just to be seated with their young child,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “Flying with children is already complicated enough without having to worry about that.”

Interestingly, the DOT’s proposed rule says family seating is considered a “basic service,” that must be included in the ticket fare. The DOT welcomes comments about any other features of air travel that should be considered as “basic” and included in the base fare.

The proposed rules would:

• Prohibit family seating fees: This would apply to children age 13 or younger who are assigned seats next to their parent or accompanying adult.
• Require adjacent family seating: This would require airlines to assign seats for parents next to their children at no charge within 48 hours of booking, assuming adjacent seats are available.
  Adjacent means seats next to each other in the same row, without being separated by the aisle.
  Adjacent family seats would have to be offered in every class of service and airlines would be prohibited from categorizing classes to make adjacent seating impossible. For example, the DOT said, an airline couldn’t define “basic economy” as only middle seats. If an adult is traveling with a number of children and it’s impossible to offer adjacent seating for all of them, the additional assigned seats must be across the aisle or in the row in front of or behind the adult.
• Require refunds, free rebooking and other options when appropriate family seating isn’t possible: If adjacent family seats aren’t available when the tickets are booked, airlines would be required to offer travelers a refund or options for adjacent family seating if seats open later. If they’re not, the travelers must be given the option of free rebooking.
• Require disclosure of fee-free family seating: Airlines would be required to tell travelers they have a right to fee-free family seating upfront — at any point of contact when travelers may book tickets.
• Impose penalties: If an airline charges a family seating fee, it would be considered a violation and subject to civil penalties for each incident.

In February 2023, no airlines guaranteed free family seating and some airlines charged $10 to $50 extra per seat, in addition to the ticket price. Then in March 2023, the DOT started pressuring airlines to accommodate seating young children with their parent or adult travel companion at no extra cost by publicly disclosing who charges and who doesn’t.

As of May 2024, four of the big 10 airlines guaranteed free family seating: Alaska, American, Frontier and JetBlue. Six don’t: Allegiant, Delta, Hawaiian, Southwest, Spirit and United. Nothing has changed as of Aug. 1.

The DOT already planned to work on new rules to require free family seating before Congress included it in the massive airlines bill passed in May. That law says the DOT rule “shall include a provision that prohibits an air carrier from charging a fee, or imposing an additional cost beyond the ticket price of the additional seat, to seat each young child adjacent to an accompanying adult within the same class of service.” A “young child” is defined by Congress as someone who is younger than 14 years old.