Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
The title of this thread is misleading as all airlines (with the possible exception of some foreign carriers that do not permit babies in FC, although even those airlines would "let" families fly together in coach) currently let families travel together if there's space together on the flight and the family is willing to pay the fare and any requires taxes and fees, including applicable seat reservation fees. Since airlines are not permitted to discriminate, they're basically required to "let" families fly together if these conditions are satisfied. OTOH if for example a flight only has one remaining seat available, there's no feasible way to "let" some family fly together on that flight and it would be pointless for any government to require this.
I agree the title may be misleading because no one really knows what these proposals are going to end up looking like. But I think it's not an issue of flying a family of four on a specific flight that only has one open seat left. I think it's a reaction to the airlines regularly assigning family members to random separated seats on flights with plenty of adjacent seats then essentially extorting an extra fee from parents for having their kids sit next to them.
Leaving aside the free market principles of whether carriers should be allowed to monetize family travel, I think ultimately the argument is decided on safety issues. Because if my 5 yo is seated 10 rows behind me seated between two strangers, if you think I'm exiting that plane in an emergency without her, you're nuts. I'm heading upstream to get her and I'll do what I need to if you or an FA tries to stop me. THAT presents a danger to the entire plane that overrides a solo FF desire to sit in their favorite seat or the airline's desire for profitability.