Originally Posted by LarryJ

How young are the children? If under 12, UAL will make sure they are next to an adult in their party. Not necessarily the whole family together, though.

There are some seats which are held from seat selection until the day of departure to accommodate such situations. They look occupied on the seat map but are not.

Originally Posted by jsloan

I believe that the only thing that is actually promised is that if there aren't two seats adjacent, UA will put the passengers on the next available flight at no charge. They generally won't move passengers around without asking; and while some gate agents will call other passengers up to the podium to ask if they'd swap, many delegate the responsibility to the parents.


There are a few such seats, and I certainly suggest that OP both keep an eye on the seat map leading up to departure and also ask at the gate. (Also, OP: Seat alerts are available on the free plan at ExpertFlyer.com). But there may not be enough seats in reserve; the more that OP is able to improve their seats in preparation for requesting a trade, the better.

Nobody wants to sit next to a young, unaccompanied child, but there are still some people who are increasingly suspicious of seat change requests, because they suspect someone was trying to be cheap and then rely upon a guilt-trip to get the seat they didn't want to pay for. (I realize this doesn't apply to the OP's case, but the passengers on board won't know that -- especially on the domestic US leg, since most people probably won't even know that there's an AC strike in the works).