Letter to the Hon. Elaine Chao, Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation - Schumer reveals: Airlines continue to lack policy that assures kids sit with their parents on flights--but Feds were directed to fix this in 2016; with holiday travel afoot throughout Upstate NY, senator demands Feds enact a family seating policy that doesn't cost people more $$$

Letter

Dear Secretary Chao,

I write to you today regarding the disturbing matter of children being separated from their parents aboard commercial aircraft and the Department of Transportation's lack of action to establish a family-friendly policy on this matter.

Every day, parents booking flights are told to pay the airlines for the right to guarantee a seat next to their child, and too often even when those fees are paid many children under the age of 13 are seated apart from their families. This is simply wrong. Therefore, with the holiday travel season upon us, I urge you to establish a policy to ensure that children 13 and under will not be seated apart from their parents on commercial aircraft.

In recent years, airlines have begun to charge passengers fees to choose their seat assignments and this has had disastrous consequences for families attempting to sit together on their flights. A recent Freedom of Information Act request filed by Consumer Reports revealed 136 complaints against airlines for separating parents from their children. For example, in two cases, United separated families traveling with 1-year-olds, and in one case on a two-leg international trip. In seven cases, 2-year olds were seated separated from their family. Alarmingly, in three other cases, the separated children were autistic.

Even when families pay to be seated together, some of the complaints reveal that their paid seat assignments together were given away and they were re-assigned seats apart from each other as a family. And in one case, a family on American were separated from each other, with one child who suffers from seizures being separated from the rest of the family and the other child, a 2-year-old, having their Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved car seat denied, posing a potential safety concern. The list of disturbing complaints goes on, and no doubt there are many more instances that have never been reported to the Department of Transportation.

The FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016 directed the Secretary of Transportation to "review and, if appropriate, establish a policy directing all air carriers […] to establish policies that enable a child, who is age 13 or under […] to be seated in a seat adjacent to the seat of an accompanying family member over the age of 13, to the maximum extent practicable and at no additional cost." To date, the Department of Transportation has declined to establish such a policy or direct the airlines to establish such a policy, citing a "low number of complaints" for your inaction.

Complaints numbering 136 are not a "low number," and even one instance of a young child being separated from their family on a commercial flight is unacceptable and quite frankly, disturbing. Airlines should have a responsibility to put families first over profits and fees, and the Department of Transportation must act now to come up with sensible guidelines.

I urge you to create a policy with all due speed to keep families with children 13 and under together when traveling aboard a commercial aircraft, to prevent these disturbing instances from ever occurring again.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this serious matter. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff.

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