Shame on Airlines for Separating Parents and Children

Since the introduction and proliferation of change fees for seat selections, it has become increasingly difficult and expensive for families to ensure they are all seated together when flying. The situation adds additional stress to parents, imposes safety concerns for kids, and has made travel a nightmare for families who are forced to sit rows apart from each other. But, despite complaints to the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) about this issue, it does not look like things are going to change anytime soon.

The Trouble With Separating Families

As of late 2019, there have been over 130 complaints to the DOT about the separation of families on aircraft. Many reports outlined events in which 3-year-olds, children with autism, and children who suffer from seizures were separated from their parents. Although the thought of a child with special needs sitting alone without a trusted guardian is concerning enough, there is still the very real risk of sexual assault or the possibility of an inflight emergency, which a child will likely not know how to handle.

According to an FBI investigation, sexual assault on aircraft has occurred to children as young as 8 years old. Furthermore, children trying to find their parents before exiting an aircraft during an emergency pose a safety risk to other passengers.

The Less Than 1%

Back in 2016, in an attempt to address this problem, Congress proposed the Families Flying Together Act. But the legislation was never passed and the DOT deemed it unnecessary, saying that less than 1% of consumer complaints involve family seating. Personally, I think the risk of sexual assault on children seems like a big enough issue to impose legislation.

Canada’s Solid Start

While there doesn’t seem to be any further movement on this issue in the United States, Canada enacted a new law–Phase 2 of its Air Passenger Protection Regulation–in December 2019 that requires airlines to help seat parents and children under the age of 14 close together at no additional cost. How far families can be separated depends on the age of the child:

• Under the age of 5: In a seat beside the parent, guardian or tutor.
• Aged 5 to 11: In the same row and separated by no more than one seat.
• Aged 12 or 13: Separated by no more than a row.

Although this new policy is a step in the right direction, it is not a cure-all. Airlines must assign seats according to the above parameters. However, if a family is not sitting together at check-in, the airline is not required to find them seats together. They must ask for volunteers to switch places, but if they cannot find any, they cannot force any passenger to move.

Airline Policy

Many airline policies state something along the lines of, “we will seat children with their parent or guardian at no additional charge” or “seating families together is a priority,” but then force them to pay for seats together anyway.

For example, a couple flying on Air Canada was split up from their 4-year-old daughter, but when they asked the customer service representative about the issue, they were told that they could not do anything about it because they had not paid to reserve their seats. They even refused to move one parent next to the child.

Call me sensitive, but it is ridiculous that airlines are so hung up on profit from seat selection that they completely ignore the fact that a 4-year-old should not be sitting alone.

Tips to Avoid Being Separated