Which airlines let families sit together for free?
Both American Airlines and United Airlines recently announced that families can sit together on flights for free.
With most airlines, if you DON'T pay and just check in online as early as you can, you WILL get to sit with the rest of your group โ as long as seats are still available. All of the major airlines bar Ryanair told us their seat allocation systems will always try to seat groups on the same booking together.
A parent who purchases airline tickets for a family should receive a guarantee from the airline that it will seat the parent and child together without fees or a last-minute scramble at the gate or having to ask other passengers to give up their seat to allow the parent and child to sit together.
American Airlines' Commitments for Fee-Free Family Seating
Guarantees adjacent seats for child 13 or under and an accompanying adult at no additional cost for all fare types subject to limited conditions.
On most major airlines, kids must be at least five years old to fly alone, yet recently, infants as young as 11 months have been seated away from their parents. This week, major airlines have finally announced new policies to prevent families from being separated in the air.
Family Seating Policy
Delta strives to seat family members together upon request. If you are unable to obtain seat assignments together for your family using delta.com or the Fly Delta mobile app, please contact Reservations to review available seating options.
When one or more of the passengers on a reservation are 13 years of age or younger, Frontier will guarantee adjacent seats for the child or children and an accompanying adult (over age 13) at no additional cost for all fare types subject to limited conditions specified below.
The most important rule to make sure you all sit together: Book flights and reserve seats early. That's the simplest and cleanest way. Second, list all family members on the same reservation. If someone booked at a different time, link their reservation to yours.
In case you haven't selected a seat at the booking time, random seats are assigned from the available ones, and the random seat assignment gets panelized as per the norms and rules of your preferred airlines so you must dial 1-802-341-3403 to reserve your seat.
We know that airlines do try to seat families together. But these days, paying customers pony up sometimes hundreds of bucks for their seats on full flights. In this scenario, the airlines sometimes cannot incentivize other travelers to change seats to accommodate a family.
Are children guaranteed to sit next to parents planes?
If passengers choose not to buy specific seats they may still be able to sit together but it is not guaranteed. It is the CAA's view that young children or those with disabilities should be sat with those accompanying them wherever possible.
There are additional carry-on restrictions for certain aircraft and airports. If you're a family traveling with children under 15, and do not already have seats assigned, our system will search for seats together automatically before the day of departure.
American Airlines has updated its family seating policy. American Airlines will guarantee that children will be seated next to an accompanying adult, according to the airline's updated customer service plan. It's the latest airline response to calls for better family seating policies.
United adds new and improved family seating policy
United announced a new family seating policy that allows children under age 12 to sit next to an accompanying adult for free when on basic economy tickets.
Sitting with your family
If you're traveling with a child under 12, we have new tools that make it easier for them to sit next to a family member for free. Otherwise, we can't guarantee your family or group will all sit together so consider buying a seat assignment in advance.
When flying Frontier, at least one parent will automatically be seated with any children within their family group who are under the age of 14.
We always want to make sure that the family that travels together sits together, so our Blue, Blue Plus and Blue Extra fares let you choose your seats in advance without an extra charge.
Children 2 or older are required to have their own seat, a ticketed adult fare. Children under 5 can't travel alone under any circ*mstances.
With Basic Economy, you'll experience: No seat(s) assigned until after check-in, not together.
You may also share your pass privileges with your eligible family members, such as: spouse/domestic partner or travel companion, (non)-dependent children, and parents.
Does Spirit seat families together?
Family Seating:
If Guests with children aged 13 and under do not opt to pre-select seats at the time of booking, our gate agents and Flight Attendants will work to provide adjacent seats when possible.
Winner for reliability: Spirit
When looking at both airlines' performance between July 2022 and July 2023, Spirit beats out Frontier as the most reliable option.
Not selecting a seat doesn't mean you won't get one, it just means that Frontier will assign one to you at check-in or at the gate. This means you're much more likely to get put in a middle seat, near the back.
So for 3x3x3 seating with 4 people, I would myself choose 3 and 1, like your husband said. If you want a window seat, then suppose you choose from left to right (looking toward plane's nose): kid, kid, parent (aisle), parent (aisle). if in the middle then it's parent, kiddo, kiddo, parent.
But no matter what, you should skip seat selection altogether if the airline is trying to make you pay. Here's an example. When trying to book a United basic economy fare, you might see that every available seat carries a charge, even the really lousy ones in the back.
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