Congress Is Still Trying to Mandate That Families Sit Together on U.S. Flights
Photo Credit: A family walks through an airport in Michigan. Flickr / Thomas Hawk
Skift Take
While automatically seating families together onboard U.S. airplanes sounds good in theory, it will be next to impossible to implement because of the nature of how airlines assign seats and charge for preferred access to their best seats based on yield management.
While the latest version of the U.S. Senate's bill to reauthorize and reform the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is dense with big picture reforms, one small change could affect how U.S. families fly beginning in 2017.
If the current version of the bill passes, airlines will be required to notify families if adjoining seats are available for free when they're booking. If they aren't available for free, the airline will have to notify the family about the airline's policy regarding booking consecutive seats for an additional fee or if seats are assigned at check-in.
The text of the bill reads:
"Not later than 15 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation shall complete such actio
