MSPeconomist

Yes, but people need to realize that a 17 year old six footer is neither young nor small. Also, having one little kid (or handicapped person) doesn't entitle the whole extended family to board early as one large group.

GUWonder

Have you ever seen a family try to do so only for a 6'-tall, 17-year-old without disabilities? I've never seen that in my several million miles of flying.

Who says so? It sometimes does and should, if only to make for a more timely departure of my flights.

Kate2015

I'm not nearly there, but I've never seen it either. I've also never seen an extended family board together, although I admit my husband leeches off my status and boards with me and my lap infant first as well.

I think perceptions are the problem here, really.

levilevi

Preboarded with AA in October with 3 month old, both legs of a NS RT. Both times we checked with gate agent and they called us up - maybe its GA discretion?

wrp96

I think with AA it may be one of those you need to ask things, because AA doesn't make a general announcement for preboards usually but rather will call those eligible up by name when it is time for them to board. This avoids the sudden flood of people who upon hearing that the disabled or small families get to board before everyone else suddenly remember that despite the fact they just ran through the airport they can't walk down a jetway very fast.

And yes, I have seen preboarding for families be abused unfortunately - in fact, someone I know thought that meant them because they were traveling with their 14 year old. Just like with certain provisions for the disabled, service animals, etc, seeing the abuse makes me upset because it can make it harder for those that really need those services and do follow the rules.

wrp96

Southwest's family boarding works differently.

They do preboards for disabilities only. Then they start with their groups. Now A1-A15 are reserved for elites, but the rest of the A group is open season.

Then after group A is done, then they do family boarding, then they call groups B and C.

Lovethecabin

We flew four Delta trips in the last week and every one had preboarding for "infants in arms" families. There may have been a subsequent call for small children. This was the first time in 5+ years we were on Delta, flew US Airways exclusively prior to this trip and they stopped child pre boarding years ago.

Redhead

When I've flown with my daughter on AA, I do either preboard or go with the elites (I'm lifetime plat). I really appreciate the preboard since it allows me to get my daughter to sit in a seat near me while I install her car seat into hers. If I had to have her in our exact row or in the aisle when installing the car seat, I'd really slow down people behind us. I'm pretty fast at getting everything down the aisle and into our seats, but it still hard if people are pressing up behind us or I'm trying now to whack people in their seats. It is always just the two of us, so I don't have anyone else to help herd while I'm putting in the carsea

FlyerTalker01565

Ah, the pyramid growth fallacy. As an economist, that's pure cringe with the implicit premise that each human on average consumes more than they produce/contribute during their lifetime in govt. services. That's an unsustainable model for any growth rate. This fallacious view of public economics has stuck around mainly to defend the current immigration discourse and so is politically charged.

We need productivity growth per capita; not necessarily per country.

GUWonder

Talk about barking up at a cloud. Now based to the ground realities:

Various governments in the OECD world have decided to allow for families with young children to travel together without paying a supplement to sit together so that young children have a responsible adult seated near them; and various airlines are concerned enough about liability and bad PR to make sure that young children are allowed to be seated next to an accompanying caregiver without charging a supplement for it.

Mandatory post-purchase charges not disclosed as mandatory at time of purchase are widely prohibited by OECD governments. This would apply to forcing separation of young children from accompanying adults unless and until a fee were paid as mandated by the airline despite not being disclosed in advance of purchase as being mandatory.

Do you really believe that a lap-child infant or four year old child should be seated in random seats away from the accompanying caregiver and/or additional oxygen mask in the row? Fortunately, governments and airline management tend to use common sense and be liability-shy when it comes to such matters.