Senator Charles Schumer is asking Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to stop airlines from charging a fee to allow parents to sit with their children. A recent Associated Press report found families will likely find it harder to sit together on a plane without paying hundreds of dollars in extra charges.
Schumer is also asking the industry’s trade group, Airlines for America, to persuade carriers to voluntarily waive the fee for families.
“Children need access to their parents, parents need access to their children and airline fees should not serve as a literal barrier between mother and child. And that’s what happened this traveling season,” said Schumer.
Airline officials say they do try to keep parents and children together but cannot guarantee the seating unless families book early or pay extra.
The extra charges come in the wake of rising fuel prices and operating costs and increased profits this year for the airlines.
(Source: NY1)
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2 Responses
I think there is an easy solution. Run a few flights where children are crying for their parents and the parents have to keep disturbing the people who paid extra for the aisle seats. Pretty soon there should be enough complaints for the air line to rethink the policy.
Leave the passengers alone. Let the protests come from within. Have parents and children use the call button non stop to get the attention of the flight attendants. You have them coming and going an entire flight and they’ll stop biting the hand that feeds them.