'American Airlines promised families sit together - but my daughter was across the aisle'
One mother was shocked and upset to find that her family was not sitting together on a recent American Airlines flight, despite company policy.
Sara Kloek and her two-year-old were separated by an aisle on a recent American Airlines flight. This is despite the fact American Airlines has a policy in place with guarantees all families will be seated together for free, on all its flights.
Sara had booked tickets for herself, her husband and their daughter on a flight from Washington DC to Minnesota.
When she booked, she noticed that there were no free seats next to each other left.
If she wanted the family to sit together, she would have to pay for an upgrade to Main Cabin Extra seats. She didn’t give it much thought as American Airlines had proudly announced in March that it was the first airline to guarantee that any children flying under the age of 14, would be able to sit with their accompanying adult for free.
American Airlines said: “We are proud to offer industry leading, customer-friendly policies that ensure a positive travel experience for families traveling together.
"Our current policies allow families to sit together without having to pay more, and we are pleased to update our Customer Service Plan to provide additional clarity to families traveling with us.”
The day before they were traveling, Sara noticed the seats she’d been assigned were not together. Her and her daughter were given seats adjacent to each other across the aisle, while her husband’s seat was seven rows behind.
“I saw the aisle seats and decided that’s going to be a problem.”
She wanted to sit next to her child and her daughter usually travels in a car seat. American Airlines’ policy states that a car seat can only be used in a window seat for safety reasons.
Sara contacted AA via their chat the day before and was ‘told’ she’d have to pay $61 each for two Main Cabin extra seats. In the chat the airline also advised that “the power to reassign is with the airport and flight attendant”.
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Sara said: “I wouldn’t have known if I waited until I got to the airport and I don’t want to chance it if I’m traveling with a two year old.”
It wasn’t until she tweeted a map of the seating plan to AA that the airline responded, saying they had reassigned her and her daughter to adjacent window and aisle seats.
A spokesperson for American Airlines told USA TODAY that automatic booking should seat families together and it’s unlikely that it would not happen.
"Adjacent seats must be available in the same class of service your child is ticketed at the time of booking,” reads the website. “If these conditions aren’t met, we will still try to seat children adjacent to an accompanying adult.”
