American Airlines Is the Latest Airline to Update Family Seating Policy
The airline announced it would “guarantee children 14 and under will be seated adjacent to an accompanying adult at no additional cost, including Basic Economy fares.”
Courtesy of American Airlines
American Airlines updated its family seating policy on Tuesday, becoming the latest United States carrier to pledge young children will be seated near a family member for free.
The airline, which included the new policy in its updated customer service plan, announced it would “guarantee children 14 and under will be seated adjacent to an accompanying adult at no additional cost, including Basic Economy fares.” To qualify, families need to be booked on the same reservation, adjacent seats must be available at the time of booking, and customers cannot make changes to their seat assignments once they are assigned.
Additionally, American warned adjacent seating may not be available if the original flight is switched to a smaller aircraft.
“Our goal is to have families seated together,” the airline wrote in its plan.
Department of Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg applauded American for putting the policy in its customer service plan and tweeted the DOT would publish a family seating dashboard next week that details policies for all major U.S. airlines. The DOT published a similar dashboard last year that showed airline policies during delays and cancellations.
“A parent should be able to sit next to their child without paying extra fees, asking other passengers to swap seats, or facing a last minute scramble at the gate,” Buttigieg tweeted. “That’s why [the DOT] is moving to require airlines to guarantee fee-free family seating.”
American’s decision to codify the family seating policy in its customer service plan comes days after United Airlines and Frontier Airlines made similar guarantees. Frontier Airlines also put the updated policy in its customer service plan.
While several airlines have moved to ensure families can sit together for free, each airline has its own policy. Delta Air Lines, for example, offers its own version of a dynamic seat map that blocks off certain rows in the main cabin so only groups of three or more people traveling together can book them. And in December, Southwest said it will start testing a new pilot program that will allow families with children to pre-board the plane first.
Low-cost airline Breeze Airways has touted its policy of always allowing adults traveling with children up to 12 years old to select seats for free in the airline’s designated “family section.”
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