Family vacation: Airlines asked to cut fees for seating together

Family vacation might be cheaper if Senator Charles Schumer succeeds in getting airlines to allow families with young children to sit together without paying extra for window and aisle.

|
John Nordell/Staff/File
Family vacation can cost hundreds of dollars extra due to airline fees for aisle and window seating. But Senator Charles Schumer is asking airlines to eliminate fees for families with young children who need to sit together.

Sen. Charles Schumer is urging airlines to allow families with young children to sit together without paying extra.

The New York Democrat is reacting to an Associated Press story last week detailing how families this summer are going to find it harder to sit together without paying fees that can add up to hundreds of dollars over the original ticket price.

"Children need access to their parents and parents need access to their children," Senator Schumer said in a statement. "Unnecessary airline fees shouldn't serve as a literal barrier between mother and child."

Since last year, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, and United Airlines have increased the percent of seats they set aside for elite frequent fliers or customers willing to pay extra. Fees for the seats – on the aisle, next to windows, or with more legroom – vary, but typically cost $25 extra, each way.

Airlines are searching for more ways to raise revenue to offset rising fuel prices. Airfare alone typically doesn't cover the cost of operating a flight. In the past five years, airlines have added fees for checked baggage, watching TV, skipping security lines and boarding early. Fees for better seats have existed for a few years but have proliferated in the past 12 months.

Schumer is asking Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to issue rules preventing airlines from charging parents more to sit next to kids. He is also asking the industry's trade group, Airlines for America, to persuade carriers to voluntarily waive the fee for families.

"A parent should not have to pay a premium to supervise and protect their child on an airplane," Schumer wrote in a letter expected to be sent Sunday to Nicholas E. Calio, the trade group's president.

The airlines say they try to keep parents and young children together. Gate agents will often ask passengers to voluntarily swap seats but airlines say they can't guarantee adjacent seats unless families book early or pay extra for the preferred seats.

Airlines have resisted past efforts by the government to further regulate them. Their argument: The cost associated with new rules would cripple an industry already struggling with thin profit margins.

Two years ago, Schumer got five big airlines to pledge that they wouldn't charge passengers to stow carry-on bags in overhead bins. The promise came after Spirit Airlines became the first US carrier to levy such a fee.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Family vacation: Airlines asked to cut fees for seating together
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2012/0529/Family-vacation-Airlines-asked-to-cut-fees-for-seating-together
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe