Dem lawmaker files bill to require airlines to seat families together - The Hill's Transportation Report
Is about a move in the USA to force airlines to seat families together. Of course, the airlines say they do their best and that families can buy specific seats. I don't know how "family" is defined in the proposed legislation.
There is a bit of me that says it makes a lot of sense to seat children paying a reduced fare next to their parent/guardian. Saves a lot of potential claims about inappropriate behaviour by adults against children and I suppose there is some potential for the adult to help the child in caase of an incident. On the other hand my family once found ourselves with 5 separate seats spread around every economy cabin on a 747. As it happened two were one behind the other so we put Granny and youngest (maybe 8 at the time) there and a charming American couple who had reserved the window and aisle put him in the window seat and all was well. The older boy (10?) was not far from me in the rear cabin so I was able to keep an eye on him. I can't remember where my wife was and don't ask why we didn't put her in the seat in front of youngest it's all to do with staff travel (which of itself explains why we were separated). We survived the flight to San Francisco but then we had warned the boys what might happen and they had flown before so it wasn't a disaster. For a family on their first trip or with even younger children I can see the bill being a boon.
Opinions?