American Airlines Is the Latest Airline to Update Family Seating

American Airlines became the latest US carrier to promise young children will be seated near a family member for free on Tuesday.

In its amended customer service plan, the airline promised to “guarantee children 14 and under will be seated adjacent to an

accompanying adult at no additional cost, including Basic Economy fares.” To qualify, families must be booked on the same reservation,

neighboring seats must be available when booking, and customers cannot change their seat allocations once assigned.

If the flight is downsized, American said neighboring seating may not be available.

Pete Buttigieg, secretary of transportation, praised American for including the policy in its customer service plan and tweeted that the

DOT would publish a family seating dashboard next week with policies for all major U.S. airlines. Last year,

Buttigieg tweeted, “A parent should be able to sit next to their child without paying extra fees, asking other passengers to swap seats, 

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