Originally Posted by
MarkOK
I am saying that if someone buys a BE ticket for a minor within a PNR, the airline chooses seats that keeps that minor with a parent. Charge the customer for any changes to this seat. Being seated with your minor children and choosing your actual seats are not the same thing. Again, this is how AA has done my reservations in BE, and it makes perfectly sound sense.
No need to change anything in the fare rules or the way they are described.
The
entire point of BE-type fares is to create an incentive structure to encourage you to buy more expensive fares or add-ons. Precisely the opposite of what you're suggesting.
What you're proposing creates a moral hazard. Parents want the cheap seats, but also want to be protected from the diminished amenities that come with those cheap seats. That doesn't make any sense to me, either from an economic perspective for UA, or from a fairness perspective to other passengers.
The parents have an alternative, which is to pay more for seats that allow you to book specific seats in advance. UA warns passengers booking these fares that they're going to be stuck with whatever seats they're assigned - if they're not comfortable with that risk, for whatever reason, pay more for the ticket. Personally, I agree with the suggestion that united.com should explicitly block parents with children under 14 from booking these fares.
This isn't like preboarding - what people are suggesting is that families with children should fly at a lower effective price than other passengers. I'm fully in support of the former, but the latter is just fundamentally wrong.