Biden administration proposes barring airlines from charging family seating fees
The U.S. Department of Transportation said on💧 Thursday it is proposing barring U.S. and foreign 🅠airlines from charging fees to seat families with young children together on a flight if adjacent seats are available during booking.
The Biden administration said in February 2023 it planned to write regulations barrin🅷g the fees as officials pressured airlines🌃 to voluntarily not charge them.
In May, Congress passed legislatꦉion 𒉰;that President Joe Biden signed into law directing a ban on the practice.
Biden has repeatedly clashed with air carriers, calling for new, stricter consumer rules a﷽nd crit🦩icizing them for imposing fees.
His administration has also 🔥aggressively moved to block further consolidation in the passenger airline indus🎉try, including successfully blocking a tie-up between JetBlue Airways, and Spirit Airlines and quashing an alliance between JetBlue and American Airlines.
The DOT launched a family seating dashboard in March 2023 that shows four airlines — Alaska Airlines, American, Frontier, and JetBlue — have committed to guaranteeing family seating without separate fees, the DOT said.
All other large domestic 🌄carriers have policies attempting to seat families together but do not guarantee it, the DOT said.
The proposal bars airlines from charging fees to assign seats to ꦆchildren to sit✨ next to their parents on U.S. flights.
Where that is not possible, to provide adjacent seating🧔 for multiple young children, airlines would be required to seat them across the aisle fro🎀m, in front of, or behind a parent.
The DOT would require refunds or free rebooking when adjacen▨t family seating is not available if passengers chose not to take that flight.
Airlines 🐬could face civil penalties if they did not comply.
Earlier this week, a U.S. appeals court blocked the DOT’s new rule on upfront disclosure of airline fees pending a full review of the regulation.
Biden in May 2023 said his administration would propose new rules requiring airlines to compensate passengers with cash for significant flight del💝ays or cancellations when the carriers are responsible but the DOT still has not released a proposal.
