I don't disagree with that at all - I'm a big fan of knowing what you're getting. What I dislike as a practice (and again, this is just my opinion based on personal experiences and having frustrating experiences shared by friends and family) is that families with young children are expected to pay the "add on" charge to ensure littles aren't sat with strangers, I feel like it approaches a low level of extortion to "force" families to pony up extra or just not fly. The airlines are already collecting three, four, five or more seat fares from a family, and sometimes the "nominal" extra fee times three/four/five can add up to almost the cost of an additional ticket. In addition, if airlines are going to allow kids to be seated away from parents, they need better safeguards to keep small kids from being alone. Airlines have age limits for unaccompanied minors, and it seems odd that an airline would allow a 2 year old to be seated away from their parent but yet wouldn't allow that child on the plane at all if unaccompanied - at 2 years old having the parent physically on the plane but not with the child isn't enough supervision.
How many 2 year olds does a typical family have? I mean I have a family of five...I would not pay the fee 5 times...I might pay it for one adult and the young children