President Biden recently announced that he plans to crack down on travel ”junk fees,” including airlines charging fees for families to sit together. While no laws have been passed yet, United Airlines is being proactive with its new family seating policy. This a positive move, with even better optics. I’m sure we’ll see other airlines…
Continue reading: United’s Impressive New Family Seating Policy
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Great job United! I agree with you that it's a pleasant surprise to see them lead the way on this so quickly.
Whatever keeps the families with kids in the very back is welcomed news.
Too often entitled people with kids in basic economy get assigned random E+ seats and expect people to move becuae they are too cheap to pay to sit next to their spawn.
United's IT really is the best. Their app is so far ahead of every other airline I've ever used it's not even funny.
Not impressive at all. Delta did this months ago. If you look at a DL seat chart, the seats marked with an 'X' are not self-assignable. They are being held for groups traveling together ... like families. The reservation system picks this up - or can be done by an agent - so this is not 'impressive' new news.
You are right about this, Ben. This is a good move, with great optics, and of course a smart choice on United's part to get ahead of impending mandates. This is a business that is making good decisions.
I agree that while not perfect, United has come a long ways, and gets most things right most of the time. No hating on United here.
Bob is spot on. Anyone boarding first without status should be seated in the back. Families, disabled, whatever. If you require extra time to board then that means you need extra time to deplane. Why hold everyone up for those that are slow?
Will this also apply for basic economy fares ? That would take away a benefit of the regular economy fares to select seats for free at the time of booking?
This isn't a hard technology problem for any airline to solve. They can easily charge for every seat except for a middle seat, so they can also easily seat families together. United deserves no kudos. It should never have not been like this in the first place. The airline industry deserves to be dropped on its head with aggressive regulations.
This shift back towards family-friendly policies makes sense on the part of airlines, even if you exclude the Biden Administration's focus on airline fees and operations. Business travel is not recovering nearly as quickly as was predicted in 2021, but hybrid-leisure travel has. It means that prioritizing good solo traveler seats and business traveler patterns (aisle seats, cabin forward, more overhead space) is not as important anymore.
By not having to have such a premium on aisle seats, they can afford to give an entire row to a single family more easily. They also don't need to have high-demand flights (Monday AM, Thursday/Friday PM) policies dictate all seating across the schedule.
Exactly. I wouldn't want to have to change a seat I paid extra for, for someone booking late.
this isn't any more impressive than United's Connection Saver which other airlines had the capability to do long before United developed it and other airlines also used those capabilities. United just makes a big production about routine processes which other airlines just do.
Every airline that has the capability to allow advance seat selection also has the ability to not allow certain seats to be assigned and either automatically or via an agent assign seats to groups or unseated parties either at an airport or in a res office and to resolve special seating requests at the gate.
United is diminishing the value of the paid seats it does offer even in the economy cabin and of tickets that allow advance seat selection.
Meanwhile, Cranky Flier just highlighted how unreliable United's advance schedules are more than 90 days out, something that has also drawn the ire of the Administration - whether it should or not.
Blocking seats is not really that impressive from a tech standpoint. Ben's highlighting the dynamic nature of it, and the ability to switch to a different flight for free if a pair isn't available.
Got upgraded to F yesterday with my daughter. Somehow our reservation split. At the gate agent called her us up and wanted to make sure I knew we were still sitting together. Was a very nice since just a minute before when the upgrade cleared I noticed her boarding pass dissaperrd from reservation.
Nope. Family and I will choose seats that are as close to the front of the plane as possible. It doesn’t matter when we board — first, middle, or last.
All we want to do on arrival is to grab our things and walk off the plane.
There's another angle to this, it's becoming harder and harder to hire gate agents. Talk to any gate agent one of the top things they hate to deal with are family meltdowns due to not being able to seat kids with their parents. This will slightly improve job satisfaction from that work group.
Even though I am fortunate currently to rarely fly economy, I applaud this move because I recall many flights in the past when I was asked by a crew member if I would trade my aisle seat for middle seat so that a child sitting rows back could join it’s family. I always gave up my seat but wasn’t happy.
AA already guarantees that at least one parent/chaperon will be seated next to children, even on a BE fare. In fact, AA will move other paxs around to make sure this happens. Not sure why this is anything more than what AA does.
United has gotten great with optics. And why not, its VP of Communications is Josh Earnest - former Press Secretary to Barach Obama. If any body is a spin meister, it's him. That probably explains why Scott Kirby gets so much air time to make ludicrous remarks like "United is the best airline in the world". United Connecter service, this family seating 'not such a big deal' is just spin. Delta implemented a similar group seating capacity to its res system months ago. It's all in the optics and who you know in the press.
Yet the only thing the airline industry is getting dropped on its head is bailout money.
If airline system can seat children under 12 with family, can they at least seat GS at least a few rows away from children under 12?
No matter what United, or most other airlines do, people here will shit on them and complain anyway it seems. Nothing is ever good enough.
It is about United’s perceived need to incessantly toot its own horn.
And some of their horn tooting has backfired such as its statements about coming up first with an industry leading pilot agreement
Ben 1 ai have read this on mail logs and still have a question. Is United offering free adjoining seats for families w kids under 12 or just letting them book (and pay) for seats together. Frankly why should they get a free ride? You can usually find, and buy, seats together.
Understand that like w credit card companies being forced to reduce late fees the airlines will make up the lost revenue either by raising fees on other services, raising airline fares or cutting costs. There is no situation in business where revenue is cut and there aren’t other changes - that is just the nature of corporate capitalism (and thank God for that). Too many want something for nothing which is almost criminal IMHO
Meanwhile I booked Premium Economy on Lufthansa and they wanted to charge to reserve seats in advance. I even called and asked them to assign _any_ seats where our under-12 kids and parents can sit together and they still refused.
Very "impressive" to see that everyone else is still going to be gouged with junk fees. Glad to know that families with kids have more privelages and pay less than those without.
because United's policy takes away from other people that potentially pay more in order to give people that pay less.
American's policy (as stated here) does not detract from anyone while Delta automated the process (also as stated on here) and neither grandstanded about their accomplishments.
@Tim Dunn nothing is better than what Delta does ever. Did you know they’re the most profitable according to DOT? I’m looking forward to your economically grounded arguments
What I don’t understand that if pets can be transported in the cargo hood in a suitable carrier? Why not children? I mean sure if pets are $125 I mean kids could be $175. Everyone likes to give United shit because they kill dogs and beat doctors and break guitars but let’s recognize their initiative and take it to the next level.
Yet another reason families will not be proactive with seat selection. No value in paying for seats if the airline will accommodate at the gate.
And no, I do not change seats to accommodate; unless the change is to my advantage. The last time I was asked to move I told the passenger $200 cash or 10,000 miles deposited before I will move. I paid $89 for the seat selected and wasn't going to move for free.
The point, as confirmed by people below, is that Delta programmatically did this months ago with no fanfare and didn't erode the benefits of any other customers in the process.
That's what I thought as well - moving people around is probably an issue for gate agent and flight attendant job satisfaction as well as a factor in delays in boarding and take off. This may appease job dissatisfaction and slightly improve boarding time.
And yet you love flying United! Thanks for choosing them over us at Delta where we don't care about your kids, just pay the fees and sip on that little overpriced 1.5oz bottle of alcohol.
Agreed. This should lead to a class action lawsuit. It's discrimination against some of us that can't or won't have children.
The system I think could manage if everyone is in the same reservation but I wonder what happens when people are not on the same reservation.
This is just an extension of parents with babies getting bulkhead seats and boarding at the same time as 1K even if their reservation is for Basic Economy. Not sure why United cares so much about wooing the parental demographic when they're already coddled enough as it is.