Airlines charge extra for families to sit together

http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/18/13921681-airlines-playing-chicken-with-passengers-charging-you-get-to-sit-with-your-kid-fee?lite

The airlines might be rubbing it in everybody's faces that they can pretty much do whatever they want since a lot of people need to fly and don't have a lot of options, and they can get away with it, but every time they pull some new stunt, they are also guaranteeing they will NEVER see any of my money. At the rate the experience of flying is going, I'm going to stay on land for the rest of my life.

That's total bull shit. I understand airlines have to sometimes change plane assignments and with that comes seat changes. What gets me is it was doable to seat them together...for a fee. Screw that. They booked in advance.

This is good info for people flying with kids a lot. My friend is flying one of those airlines that does direct flights to Disney. She is literally scared shitless because she isn't sure the airline will still be flying from here when the time comes. And they can't afford to take the kids if they don't get this cheapie deal.

I don't get it if you buy the tickets all at once and purchase a block at the same time then you all sit together?

I'm scratching my head over this. When my wife printed out our boarding passes for our flight home last Sunday she was able to change our seat assignments so we were all sitting closer together. No big deal. But they had already banged us over the head for $25 to check one bag. Wasn't that long ago that you only were charged for extra baggage.

That being said, yeah it is kind of bullshit to pull that for a flight that was booked enough in advance so they could sit together. But as the article alluded to, I think they could have found a volunteer to switch seats away from the hysterical 5 year old screaming for her mother.