More and more airlines are charging for seat reservations on board – even for families.
A mother was therefore separated from her daughter in the USA.
“If I left my child with strangers in a public place for several hours, I would likely be reported to child services and the police.
So why is that a trivial offense on an airplane?” writes Jennifer Keller in an article on the English-language online portal
Insider
.
What is meant is the fact that it is now common for many airlines that passengers – including families – have to pay a fee to get seats next to each other.
Because she could not afford these additional costs, the mother tried other ways to be allowed to sit next to her daughter on the plane - without success.
Separated from daughter: Mother complains of lack of support with seat assignment
The story took place in the USA: After a stay in the state of Delaware, Keller and her 3-year-old daughter were supposed to go home again.
In advance, the mother tried to adjust the seat assignment online, which didn't work.
The airline's customer service referred them to the gate staff.
And they couldn't help her there either: nobody in the row of seats could be persuaded to change seats and the mother was advised to try her luck on board herself.
"We boarded the plane.
When we got to my daughter's line and she realized what was going on, she burst into tears," Keller wrote in her
Insider post
.
A passenger would have reacted unnerved and released his seat.
For the mother, however, the question arose: Why is nobody stopping the airlines from separating families?
+
A girl was assigned a seat in a different row than her mother.
(icon picture)
© Imago
The US Department of Transportation is aware of the problem.
In July, it called on the airlines to introduce a guideline for family seat selection within four months - but many airlines would lapse this deadline, according to Keller.
The Ministry of Transport also offers tips on how parents can make sure they are allowed to sit next to their little ones.
One suggestion: book a higher seat class.
"For me, that's wrong advice," writes Keller.
“In my case, I was a pretty bare mother trying to scrape together a trip after my girl's vaccination;
it was economy or nothing.”
Deductible or paying more because of age: mistakes in trip cancellation insurance
Deductible or paying more because of age: mistakes in trip cancellation insurance
Airlines regulate themselves whether families have to pay for a seat reservation
In fact, there is no law in Europe that requires adults to sit with their children during a flight, according to the air passenger
rights portal Airhelp
.
In most cases, families could book side-by-side seats at no additional cost.
However, this is regulated differently from airline to airline.
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Lufthansa advises families, for example, to make a seat reservation on a long-haul flight for a fee - there doesn't seem to be an exception.
With Ryanair, parents can assign a free seat for a maximum of four children for every adult paying for a seat reservation.
Easyjet recommends that parents specify the number of children and infants and their ages when booking.
Then the seating system would attempt to seat families together.
However, it is important that the parents check in as early as possible - the period begins 30 days before the flight.
Otherwise there may not be enough seats available.
List of rubrics: © Imago
