A new online tool aims to make it easier for families with young kids to avoid extra fees for families to sit together while traveling. This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation introduced the Airline Family Seating Dashboard, which allows potential passengers to check which airlines guarantee free family seating.
"To receive a green check on the dashboard, an airline must guarantee that parents can sit next to children age 13 and younger for free if adjacent seats are available when they book,” the DOT explains. “And they must include that guarantee as part of their customer service plan so that it is backstopped by USDOT enforcement if they fail to deliver.”
The dashboard’s other features include being able to see which airlines charge for rebooking or meal vouchers in the event of a flight cancellation that is “controllable” by an airline, and links to airlines’ customer service plans. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says they’ve been “pressing airlines to guarantee family seating without tacking on extra charges” and some airlines are starting to do this, including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Frontier Airlines.
Source: Good Morning America
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