Is the 2016 Families Flying Together Act still in effect?

[NickB79]

My family and I are about to take our first-ever family vacation in March, flying from Minnesota to Tampa to escape this cold, snowy winter. Our daughter is 8 yr old, and we are flying Spirit Airlines, which is known for being stingy with basically everything.

My concern is that, unless I pay extra up front, my daughter may be seated separately from us. I don't care too much if she's with me or my wife, but I would not be OK with her not near either of us.

A coworker of mine told me that it was now law that children under 13 had to be seated near a parent, and that led me to the FFTA passed in the funding bill back in 2016. However, I can't find much more about it. Does anyone have more info on this, or experience with the situation I described above?

Thanks!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Have you called the airline?

Does Spirit allow seat selection at time of ticket purchase? If Spirit is an airline that doesn't do seat selection, consider flying a different airline.

[EX500rider]

3. Yes if you pay extra you can pick your seat on Spirit. nt

[Major Nikon]

2. You shouldn't have a problem, even if you can't pick your seats

Most, if not all of the fleet at Spirit is based on the Airbus 320 series with a 3 and 3 seating arrangement. This means that each row has 2 aisle, 2 window, and two center seats. This means the chances of any one of you getting an aisle or window seat is double that for a center seat. Everyone hates the center seats. So just trade someone in a center seat next to one of you for one of your other aisle or window seats.

Arrive at the gate early and tell the gate agent. They will usually accommodate families with small children and will often find seats so all of you are together.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. One of the reasons I so dislike Southwest

is that, at least back when I occasionally flew on them, they didn't do seat selection. And more than once I was travelling with a couple of little kids and had to frantically find someone willing to swap seats so I could sit with them.

I'd pay a fee for seat selection, myself.

The real problem is that airlines have trained people to go for the cheapest possible fare, regardless. A while back a friend was travelling from Albuquergue to Minneapolis and was a bit concerned about the plane change in Atlanta. Why that routing? It was the cheapest fare. Personally, I'm willing to pay a bit more for a more convenient routing. Or time of day. Or even airport. I've decided, since I live in Santa Fe, I will fly in and out of this airport and I don't even look at flights from ABQ, because I can't see driving an hour when I could all but walk to the Santa Fe airport. And the last time my son visited my from the east coast I told him to plan on flying in and out of Santa Fe. He was pleasantly surprised at how convenient it was.