Airline seat selection fees should be banned. Until then, here's how to avoid them

Christopher Elliott| Special to USA TODAYShow CaptionAirline seat selection fees are one of the most hated surcharges in the travel industry – and they should be illegal.It costs an airline nothing to reserve your seat. Yet passengers shell out anywhere from $25 to more than $100 for a confirmed seat assignment or to sit next to their friends and family.If the Fair Fees Act proposed by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., passes, then seat selection fees would fly away. The law prohibits airlines from imposing fees that are not reasonable and proportional to the costs it incurs.But airlines really went too far when they began charging families with young children for seat assignments, sometimes even suggesting parents could be separated from their kids if they didn't pay. Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation threatened to create a new regulation to allow families to sit together on flights.Check outElliott Confidential, the newsletter the travel industry doesn't want you to read. Ea...