Families flying from the UK could soon stop paying extra for the privilege of sitting next to their own children. The government has announced plans to ban airlines from charging parents to be seated with kids under 14, alongside a second crackdown on fees for fixing small booking errors.

The numbers behind the announcement are striking: the government says parents currently face charges of up to £104 on a return flight to guarantee they're seated with their child, while a simple name correction on a booking can cost as much as £40. Prime Minister Andy Burnham didn't mince words, calling the family seating fees "a rip-off" and pledging to put a stop to charges that "add up".

Don't rip up your seat-selection budget just yet, though. The ban doesn't exist in law at the moment. It's set to be delivered via the Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill, which finished its House of Lords stages in July and had its second Commons reading on 9 September. It's now with a Public Bill Committee expected to report back by 22 October.

There's an extra layer of process to understand: the Bill itself doesn't impose the ban directly. Instead, it hands the Secretary of State new powers to write regulations on air passenger rights and airline duties. If it gets Royal Assent, the Department for Transport will run a consultation before the rules take effect, with input from the aviation industry. The BBC reports the changes are expected to land before next year's summer holiday season, but there's no confirmed date.

The current rules are looser. Civil Aviation Authority guidance merely says airlines should try to seat children under 12 in the same row as their adult — or at worst one row or an aisle away. Airlines UK, the industry body, reacted with surprise to the announcement, arguing its members already follow that guidance. The government's answer is that the new law would create consistency across all carriers operating in the UK, rather than leaving it to voluntary practice.

For travellers, this is one to watch rather than one to bank on. If you're booking a family flight for the coming months, assume you may still need to pay for seat assignments — or check in early and use the airline's free seat-allocation process, which in most cases keeps families together anyway. If the reforms go through as planned, parents of under-14s would get that guarantee for free, and anyone who's ever fat-fingered a surname into a booking form would also benefit from the separate plan to scrap typo-fixing fees.

The story matters beyond the UK, too. Family seating fees have become a flashpoint elsewhere, including in the US, where regulators have also pushed carriers to guarantee adjacent seats for children at no extra cost. If the UK bill passes, Britain would join a growing list of countries treating sitting with your child as a right rather than a paid extra.

We'll update this piece as the Bill moves through Parliament.

Story via Condé Nast Traveller UK.