Most frequent flyers do not need to think about family seating policy. However, for most families, it can be stressful not knowing that you will be seated with your children. In addition to that, as seat assignment fees become increasingly expensive, saving on seat selection can be an important budgetary decision.
Every airline has a family seating policy. If an airline policy is not published, then the policy is, to not have a policy.
The US Department of Transport has the following wording on their website:
A parent who purchases airline tickets for a family should receive a guarantee from the airline that it will seat the parent and child together without fees or a last-minute scramble at the gate or having to ask other passengers to give up their seat to allow the parent and child to sit together.
The Canadian Transportation Agency, has the following policy:
Seat children under the age of 5 directly beside their accompanying passenger. They must not be separated by an aisle unless the plane’s layout requires it (for example, where a plane has banks of single seats only). In those cases, the two passengers should be seated in the same row, separated only by the aisle.
Seat children aged 5 to 11 in the same row as their accompanying passenger and separated by no more than one seat (or the space of an aisle).
Seat children aged 12 or 13 no more than two rows away from their accompanying passenger. This means that there should not be more than one row between them.
Ultimately, every airline has a different implementation of the family seating policy. In this guide, I will list out my experiences with the family seating policy and how different airlines interpret the policy.
Air Canada
Once a booking is complete with a child under the age of 13 years old, Air Canada will automatically assign you a seat within 24-48 hours for the entire traveling party.
If the seats are not automatically assigned, you can call Air Canada and ask to be seated together.
Typically, Air Canada will assign you seats on the very back of the plane. This is also an opportunity to identify where children whose parents have purchased a Basic Economy ticket are seated. They will always be at the back of the plane.
American Airlines
American Airlines will run an automated seat assignment process within a few days of booking. They only guarantee that each child will be seated next to an adult, however, in our experience, the family will be seated together.
Delta Airlines
Families will need to call or chat with Delta to assign their seats for free. Delta will not automatically assign seats together.
United Airlines
United Airlines will allow you to assign up to two children along with one adult. In our experience, if you are a family of four, then all four people will be allowed to select seats during check-out. If you are two parents and one child, you will need to pay the seat selection fee for the second adults.
If you want the entire traveling party to be seated together, then you will have to pay for seat selection.
WestJet
At time of booking online, WestJet will allow a one-time seat selection for no fee into any economy class seat. If you did not select your seats, you will need to call in to manually assign seats for everyone. Typically, if you call into WestJet, they will assign you seats towards the back of the plane.
Summary
It is easy to forget what is important for most family travelers; being seated together. It is a requirement for children to be seated with an adult. Some airlines, like WestJet make it easy to assign seats. Other airlines, like United or American Airlines, can have the most strict rules about family seating.
Delta Air Lines (not Delta Airlines)!