Originally Posted by
PTravel
There might be blood in the streets. However, it would not inappropriate discrimination, either legally or morally.
Here's a thought: the airline could try to programmatically broker a seat swap, e.g. automatically generate an email to booked passengers and say, "would you be willing to change your seat for a drink coupon?" or something like that. Someone accepts, the parents get email notifying them that their booking is confirmed and providing seat assignments.
But the airlines have no incentive to do anything like that. They already take the position that they can change your seat for whatever reason (or no reason). Sure, it would be a much better service to passengers to try to avoid moving people around, but airlines have almost no concern for that. Nor are airlines going to turn down someone who is willing to pay just because there are no current seats together. After all, people cancel reservations all the time, and they get upgraded, making room for more passengers.
Like I said, it would make much more sense for airlines to simply reserve the last few rows for airport assignment, which is similar to what they used to do before they charged for even the most basic coach seats. But, again, the major airlines consider themselves to be in the business of selling a commodity, not a service business, so there is little incentive for them to make things easier.