Next month United Airlines will roll out a new family seating policy designed to seat children under 12 next to an adult for free, even if that means giving them a preferred seat at an economy price. A new automated seat map feature will find adjacent seats at the time of booking, looking first for Economy seats but automatically upgrading customers to Preferred Seats if needed. If no adjacent seat is available, the new policy lets you switch for free to a flight to the same destination that has adjacent seats in the same cabin. Hopefully, the other airlines will follow.