pinniped

I'm in the middle on this one.

I find it rational that a parent and child should be able to buy airline tickets and be able to sit together. It's ridiculous that the airlines would charge junk fees for them to get this basic service. Throughout my flying years of 30+ years, airlines have generally managed to do this reasonably well, often by holding a few seats for gate assignment or whatever.

That said, I don't think GA's or FA's should be going to people in Premium and asking them to move back to row 22 to accommodate this. I would not feel guilty about holding my ground on seat 6D to a reasonable extent. (Clearly this isn't something I'd be willing to get arrested over or anything like that.) It's poor form on Alaska's part that they allowed it to get to this point.

There was talk about the FAA passing a regulation that compels airlines to seat small children with their parents. (Or at least one parent, presumably extortion-free.) If airlines fail to do this on their own, I think that's a reasonable safety regulation. It can be done without affecting all of our precious upgrades and whatnot.

FWIW, I have no toddlers. I have teenagers and do not expect this kind of regulation for kids their age. We usually sit together because because I don't take big family trips on airlines where I have no status, but if we did due to IROPS or whatever, we'd just make do, swap seats if we can give other pax an equal/better seat, or just sit apart.