US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

> Also, nothing is worse than the folks who didn’t pay up ahead of time who bug one, ‘may we switch seats so we can sit together?’

Some of us parents ask that question for your benefit, not ours. Do you want to sit next to my three-year-old?

Some of us think you're just being cheap.

I’ve definitely selected adjacent seats in the past, then ended up separated the day of the flight. Even if it’s a couple, it’s probably the airline’s fault.

I solved the problem by preferring southwest, but their new CEO is an a*hole, and instead of raising ticket prices $50 a seat is adding assigned seating, removing legroom, charging for bags, adding ticket change fees, etc, etc.

> Do you want to sit next to my three-year-old?

Not particularly, no. What I want is for you to purchase the seats your family needs ahead of time, not ask me for them for free.

I know that travelling with kids is really tough. I sincerely sympathize! But it’s not a surprise that a kid needs a seat next to his parents. They know when they bought the ticket that he’ll be coming along, because they’re buying the ticket. They should select the necessary seats then.

Sure, if the airline had to move flights around then 1) they should attempt to preserve group cohesion 2) in extremis folks should negotiate. But for awhile I was getting requests from late-boarders every single time I flew. That’s not an accident: they are flying on cheap tickets and trying to get extra value. I sympathize with that too! But I pay for the value I get, and I don’t appreciate social pressure to give it away.

:) tables have turned. Do you want to switch seats for a "small" fee :)

No, ok never mind, enjoy your flight.

I avoid southwest because they don’t have assigned seating.

The airline asks the age of each minor traveler when tickets are booked. The airline could perfectly well require that a kid be seated next to a caretaker. (Regardless of whether they impose an extra charge for that.)

Your gripe here is with the airline.

Then don't whine when you're sitting next to a 3 year old that has all the same justifications you do for sitting there. I don't appreciate social pressure to make your flight as comfortable as possible at my financial inconvenience.

In all seriousness I understand your point but I think it's worth considering that you're also applying social pressure.

Post time traveled from when they didn't. But now they do.

Some of us are just trying to survive financially or couldn't care less what you think.

Tough luck then buddy. Have fun with the kids.

There has to be some kind of middle ground here, imo. Nobody wants to sit next to kids. Families don't want to be penalized financially anymore than they already are for providing a benefit to society. We don't need to further disincentivize families and further our declining birth rates. At the same time it's wildly unfair to ask people to switch seats when they've paid for them (or even if they haven't).

I believe every airline should offer a basic service: when minors are traveling with an adult, they should automatically be seated together. Ideally, airlines should provide a designated family seating area to avoid situations where a child ends up sitting next to a stranger.

Interesting, I’m sure they didn’t as recently as 4 weeks ago when I tried shopping for flights.

> Even if it’s a couple, it’s probably the airline’s fault.

Citation needed. These things happen, and the airline has some responsibility. But there's plenty of "playing dumb". Cabin crew: "You have a basic economy seat, which means you didn't get seat selection". "I didn't know!" "There's a big blue warning that pops up when you do this with a child passenger, making you acknowledge it..." "..."

> Not particularly, no. What I want is for you to purchase the seats your family needs ahead of time, not ask me for them for free.

What happened to "if you want it, then you have to pay for the privilege?" If you want to be sure you aren't next to a kid, just pay for a first class ticket, instead of making other people pay extra for your comfort. You knew your preferences when you bought the ticket, after all. Select the seat you find necessary. /s

The point being that the status quo rolls dice that make everyone unhappy, and there are options for everyone to avoid it by paying extra. Those options are priced by the people creating the situation in order to make a maximally profitable 'pay to avoid this' scenario. I always pay for my family to get together, but blame the airline for making you uncomfortable, not the family.

Indeed, having children should have tiny nickel and dime costs all throughout your life in a million different ways. It should be the norm that just trying to raise the next generation costs you time, energy, effort, and money just to do normal day to day things, and it should especially be harder for you because you dared to have children.

Wait, why is nobody having kids?

This is what happens now. The proposal is to get rid of that.

Generally you will be expected to pay for the costs of your life decisions.

The world has more than enough people, so we shouldn't be subsidizing having children. Imbalanced demographics can be solved in other ways.

> Some of us are just trying to survive financially

You made choices, if you were informed about the costs that's kind of on you.

They’re introducing it in January, but they’re intentionally eliminating all competitive advantages they had vs other airlines between now and then, so it’s going to be a shitshow like delta, united, american, etc. moving forward.

No: It’s “I booked 33A and 33B and took a screenshot of the receipt. At checkin, I got 60C and 22D”.

Also, screw airlines that create a financial incentive to make everyone else on the plane miserable.

The last time I flew Alaska, their seating algorithm needlessly separated parties, then jammed everyone into crowded, no legroom aisles, while leaving the comfortable seats empty.

I know it was intentionally splitting parties because I was flying solo and ended up with a center seat. The person next to me was separated from someone that the airline put in a center seat. A naive greedy algorithm would have swapped me and their companion.

They wanted something like $80 for non-malicious seating assignments.

They even made the flight attendant lie and claim was a safety issue, and the plane would fall out of the sky if people switched rows or were evenly distributed throughout the plane. Presumably, management did this so they could charge you with ignoring safety instructions, which is a crime.

Then quit whining about the toddler next to ya. That's your choice too.

I don't understand the objection to a middle ground approach here, but if that's what we want then screw it.