As a mom of three boys, if there were an Olympic gold medal for getting your whole family in the same row when you fly, I am fairly certain I’d be a podium contender. I’ve had plenty of training in booking flights early for maximum availability, booking fare types that allow for seat selection and talking to a gate agent when all else fails.
As much as I love shiny things and winning, it really shouldn’t be this hard. And that is coming from someone who has lots of experience. Some parents assume they will automatically be seated with their kids. Others end up separated from their families when rebooking due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, airlines are not required to seat families together, though some make it easier than others.
Currently, only a handful of airlines — American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines — voluntarily comply with the Department of Transportation guideline that airlines guarantee “adjacent seats for children 13 and under and an accompanying adult at no additional cost for all fare types.”
That doesn’t mean you are out of luck if you fly a different airline. If you use some of my top tips, like booking early, selecting seats when you book and avoiding basic economy fares that do not allow for seat selection, you should have luck getting your family’s seats together.
Here are a few more of my gold medal-winning family travel tips:
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