Airline apologises for charging mother $75 to sit with her toddler

‘This was not the level of service we aim to provide’

Sun Country Airlines has apologised for the incident

(Flickr/Tomás Del Coro)

An airline has apologised after trying to charge a mother $75 to sit with her young child.

The passenger, identified only as Aliss, had booked seats for herself and her toddler next to each other on a flight from Providence, Rhode Island, to San Diego via Minneapolis.

She bought the tickets for US domestic carrier Sun Country Airlines using a third party booking site.

However, once at the airport, Aliss realised she wasn’t seated next to her son.

“I would have never booked a flight where we couldn’t sit together,” she told San Diego TV station KGTV.

A representative of the airline at the airport told Aliss she could pay $75 to change seats so that she and her son would be seated together.

The woman asked for further options as she couldn’t afford to pay the extra money, and was informed that for $22 she could be assigned a place one seat in front of her toddler – but still in a separate row.

“I said that doesn’t help my problem,” said the woman. “He’s still not sitting next to me.”

Aliss also claimed the airline charged her the extra fee despite her asking them not to.

Once onboard, another woman on the flight agreed to swap seats so that Aliss could sit with her child.

To make matters worse, the flight’s departure ended up being delayed by three hours.

“This was not the level of service we aim to provide, as it is our policy that children always be seated with an adult on the itinerary at no cost,” Sun Country Airlines told USA Today.

“We have followed up with our airport staff to ensure our policy is being carried out correctly.”

They added: “We have issued a full refund to the passenger for the fees incurred at the counter related to the seat assignment.

“We were also able to ensure two seats were assigned next to one another on her return flight. Our team has resent the $200 vouchers from the flight delay to the email we have on file, and we are adding an additional $100 voucher for the inconvenience.”

According to the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups.

“Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult,” the CAA says on its website. “Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults.

“This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.”