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United to Introduce New Policy for Family Seating

Posted by (Virginia) on

I thought that this topic would have found its way here already --

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/united-airlines-changes-family-seating-policy

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/united-airlines-family-seating/index.html

https://thepointsguy.com/news/new-united-family-seating-policy/

My first impression is that any angst one might have over United's policy would seem to be much ado about nothing.

Second impression is that on the surface it seems that United is merely codifying a uniform policy across its system rather than allowing what might have been local policies at one station that potentially conflicted with another station that could lead to customer service issues that otherwise were easily solvable before it blew up.

As I see it, the result is a more useful seating map feature, they say "dynamic" and a little more family friendly on the basic economy side of things. Now in addition to MileagePlus status members, families can now get free access to the preferred seats. Otherwise United does not charge for seat selection.

Just seems to me that United is making things a little easier all around and I don't think it'll impact my experience as a solo traveler.

Posted by
739 posts

But how do you get the parents to sit next to thier own kids?
My most recent flight on Delta in Confort plus on a 757 with 3/3 seating I had a window seat and a family of 5 had the rest of the row. They had a young boy of about 4 or 5 and two grade school aged girls off. About 7 and 9.as well as mom as dad .
I was in seat A, the two girls were in B and C and then the walk way then Dad in row D the boy in E and Mom in F.
The Girls were very well behaved but still…
I saw something similar earlier in the year where the parents sat in one row and the kid was in a separate row.

My Sister on a flight a couple years ago had to preteen kids in comfort plus while the parents were in business.
And while not involving flights…. A year or so ago 4 women with one or two kids each came 8I to a restaurant I was meeting friends at. The put the kids at one table and then they sat a separate table. Not even the closest table…And the kids were not particularly well behaved and probably aged 7-10. And were rather loud and the parents did care.
So good luck getting tgis new policy to have any real effect.

Posted by
631 posts

So a family took up 5 of 6 seats in a row, with dad sitting between his kids on the aisle seat? I'm failing to see the issue here. Everything else is just noise.

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