Hidden Costs for Family Air Travel Revealed in Ongoing War on Junk Fees 

Hidden costs happen throughout the travel planning, booking and fulfilling processes. But some of those hidden costs are getting notice by regulation bodies able to stem the tide. 

Most recently, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) took measures to make it easier for parents to avoid paying junk fees to sit with their children when they fly by rolling out a new family seating dashboard tool. The web page on the DOT site highlights the airlines that guarantee fee-free family seating, and those that do not. 

As recently as a month ago, not a single U.S. airline guaranteed fee-free family seating. Now, after weeks of USDOT and the Biden Administration pressure on U.S. airlines to improve their customer service, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Frontier Airlines have stepp forward to guarantee that parents can, indeed, sit with their young children without getting nickel and dime. Those moves show significant progress, but the USDOT is not stopping there. It has already begun work on a common-sense rulemaking to ban airlines from charging families hidden costs to sit together.

Hidden Costs

United Airlines also state last month that it was changing its policy to make it easier and free for families to sit together. But the carrier is not include in the list of airline companies that promise fee-free family seating since its policy doesn’t entirely align with what the DOT is requiring for its dashboard.

“Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We have been pressing airlines to guarantee family seating without tacking on extra charges, and now we’re seeing some airlines start to make this common-sense change. All airlines should do this promptly, even as we move forward to develop a rule establishing this as a requirement across the board.”   

Final Words

Such is the newest shot in the Biden administration’s campaign to outlaw so-call “junk taxes” and compel airlines to provide better service and get other travel-related enterprises, such as hotels and resorts, to refrain from hitting their guests with hidden costs. 

On the DOT site, if an airline promises that an adult family member can sit near to their small children if seats are available and without hidden costs, the dashboard rewards the carrier with a green check. Only Alaska, American, and Frontier obtained a green check, out of the 10 U.S. airlines listed on the website.

Airlines “already work to accommodate customers who are traveling together, especially those traveling with children, and will continue to do so,” Hannah Walden, a spokeswoman at Airlines for America, a trade group whose members include the six largest U.S. carriers, told the Associated Press. “Each carrier has established individual policies, but all make every effort to ensure families sit together.”