Biden admin urges Congress to ban household seating charges on airways

The Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed legal guidelines that will bar airways from charging households extra to be seated subsequent to their children as long as seats could be discovered.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg despatched letters to members of Congress saying airways ought to ensure that “young kids are seated next to at least one parent or other accompanying adult without getting charged a junk fee,” the division launched Monday. 

The legal guidelines would apply to all US carriers as long as there are adjoining seats accessible all through reserving and as well as pertains to any child beneath 14 years outdated.

Transportation officers have moreover “begun work on a rulemaking to ensure a young child is able to sit adjacent to an accompanying adult,” the DOT talked about.

Given that “the rulemaking process can be lengthy, the President and DOT are calling on Congress to do this immediately,” it added. 

“Upon review of the airlines’ seating policies, DOT remains concerned that airlines’ policies do not guarantee adjacent seats for young children traveling with a family member and that airlines do not guarantee the adjacent seating at no additional cost,” Buttigieg wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Biden and the DOT have continued to press airways to resolve to fee-free household seating.

Just last week, the DOT launched the Airline Family Seating Dashboard, which lists the airways that guarantee adjoining seats for kids and an accompanying grownup at no additional worth for all fare types.

Prior to the dashboard being unveiled, some airways had already modified their insurance coverage insurance policies. Biden and Buttigieg simply these days recommended American Airlines and Frontier for updating their buyer help plans.

The airways, along with Alaska, are the one carriers on the DOT’s dashboard that guarantee fee-free household seating. 

In February, United Airlines launched in that it modified its protection, which takes impression this month, to allow households to be seated collectively further merely and free of price.

However, the Chicago-based supplier isn’t listed beneath the airways that guarantee fee-free household seating because of its protection doesn’t 100% match what DOT is requesting for its dashboard.