Free family seating would be a requirement for airlines under new proposed rule

As part of its ongoing effort to tamp down on junk fees across industries, the Biden Administration announced a new proposed rule that would make it illegal for airlines to charge families for adjacent seats on airplanes.

“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. Flying with children is already complicated enough without having to worry about that,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The new rule we’re proposing today, which would ban airlines from charging parents a fee to sit with their children, is another example of the Biden-Harris Administration using all the tools at our disposal to lower costs for families and protect consumers from unfair practices.”

If adopted as proposed, the rule would require airlines to:

• Assign adjacent seats to families with children ages 13 and younger for no additional fee within 48 hours of booking
• Offer refunds or rebooking at no extra charge when adjacent seats are not available on a given flight
• Disclose the right to fee-free family seating
• Pay a fine when families are charged to sit together or other provisions of the rule is ignored

The rule would define “adjacent seats” to mean seats that are next to each other in the same row and not separated by an aisle.

Alaska, American, Frontier and JetBlue all already voluntarily eliminated fees for family seat selection in line with the DOT’s new proposed rule, and United Airlines allows free family seating  but caps the age at 12, not 13.

The rule will go through a public comment period and the current proposal may not be the final rule if it’s enacted. It often takes a number of months for proposed rules to be finalized and implemented.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Free family seating would be a requirement for airlines under new proposed rule