by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:25 AM ET, Tue February 6, 2024
President Joe Biden released a tweet from his official X account (formerly known as Twitter) on February 5, sharing how “It’s time all airlines offered fee-free family seating.”
“You ought to be able to fly with your child – and sit next to them – without paying an additional fee,” he wrote on X.
This isn’t the first time he’s called on airlines in the U.S. to stop charging travelers more to book seats together with their children. In March, he announced a new family seating dashboard available on the U.S. Department of Transportation website that shows consumers which airlines offer fee-free family seating, and which ones don’t.
Some airlines had already made changes to their policies before the March announcement, such as United, which made it easier for families traveling with children under twelve to find and select multiple seats together. Frontier also changed its policy in February, ensuring that children under a certain age will always be paired with at least one family member.
Later in September, JetBlue followed the other airlines making changes to their family seating policy, ensuring travelers under 13 years of age can sit next to their parent or adult travel companion for no additional fee.
According to the DOT family seating dashboard, Allegiant, Delta, Hawaiian, Southwest, Spirit and United all offer some sort of family seating fee, while Alaska, American, JetBlue and Frontier do not.
The Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, submitted a bill in early 2023 to make it mandatory that airlines do not charge family seating fees for children thirteen and younger. The bill has yet to be passed.
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