Cheektowaga, N.Y. (WBEN) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Monday, standing with Western New York families who have been impacted by many airlines that are charging parents deceptive "junk fees" just to sit with their kids when they travel.
This announcement comes in light of many travelers getting ready for one of the busiest travel times of the year this Thanksgiving holiday week.
Schumer, who has led the fight against fees like these for years, is now pushing for legislation, the "Families Fly Together Act", to prohibit these deceptive fees on parents that six of the 10 major airlines haven't committed to removing, and finally create fee-free family seating to keep parents and kids together when they fly.
"This Thanksgiving travel week is going to be one of the busiest on record, and airlines are making a stressful travel time even more turbulent by charging junk fees to parents who want to sit with their kids on flights. Plain and simple, parents should not be the ones to pay the price for wanting to care for and keep their kids safe while traveling," said Sen. Schumer on Monday. "That's why I'm pushing for legislation that protects families and lowers travel costs by eliminating junk fees for parents in New York and across the country. The 'Families Fly Together Act' is the ticket to stopping airlines - which already make billions of dollars in profits - from charging families deceptive unaffordable and unnecessary fees, and I won't stop fighting until we've ended this ridiculous practice."
The "Families Fly Together Act" that Schumer is pushing to become law would ensure that a child can sit next to a family member on a flight at no additional cost to the base fare and prohibit airlines from charging extra fees for an adjacent seat next to an adult accompanying the child.
Schumer believes it should be common sense that charging families junk fees or enabling practices that can lead to parents and kids being split up is bad policy. And beyond creating a headache, it can be dangerous and add undue stress to the travel process for many.
Especially as holiday travel rush begins, and airports are inundated with record numbers of travelers, Schumer says it is important that traveling as a family is as stress-free and affordable as possible.
While airlines often say they will try to keep families together or make efforts to move people once on board, the senator says this is not a solution to this problem and often results in families still paying extra or having to beg patrons on the flight to move so that they can be with their kids.
"Right now, families are either getting charged junk fees that they should never face in the first place, or the airlines policies are to have them go through a game of musical chairs that is neither fun nor fair to passengers," Schumer said. "Airlines have to get their heads out of the clouds and do right by families traveling with children."
"As a mom of three young children, I know that air travel as a family is already a complex dance of logistics, expenses, and inevitable chaos. I want to commend to Sen. Schumer for co-sponsoring the 'Families Fly Together Act'," added Angela Marinucci, Amherst Town Councilmember-elect, on Monday. "This crucial legislation is a significant step in prioritizing the cohesion of families while simultaneously addressing unreasonable junk fees that make air travel unnecessarily arduous for parents. It's time to ensure that flying with our loved ones remains a practical reality for families, and I appreciate Sen. Schumer's efforts in making this possible."
Schumer says the Biden administration's actions to protect consumers have already helped make significant progress on eliminating junk fees and holding airlines accountable.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Transportation made it easier for parents to avoid paying junk fees to sit with their children when they fly by rolling out a new family seating dashboard that highlights the airlines that guarantee fee-free family seating, and those that do not.
Up until March of this year, no U.S. airline guaranteed fee-free seating for children 13 or under and an accompanying adult at no additional cost, but following pressure from the USDOT and years of the senator's advocacy, four major airlines agreed to these requirements.
Schumer says while this represents significant progress, given that many major airlines are dragging their feet or putting profit over families, the U.S. needs laws to enforce fee-free family seating, which is why he is pushing the "Families Fly Together Act" and ramping up pressure on the airlines to ensure families are no longer burdened by unnecessary fees that pinch Americans' pocketbooks.
Text of the legislation can be found here.
