United Airlines announced Monday it is making it easier for young children and accompanying adults to sit together on flights.

The airline said it has made upgrades to its seat map tool, which dynamically finds available adjacent seats during booking. Customers traveling with children under 12 years old — including those who purchased the more restrictive Basic Economy tickets — will sit together at no extra charge, United said. 

The policy will be implemented immediately and fully take effect by early March, the airline said.

If no adjacent seats are available due to factors such as last-minute bookings, full flights or unscheduled plane changes, United will allow customers to switch to another flight to the same destination without paying change fees or fare differences.

“In an era where more families are working in a hybrid environment, they’re traveling more often — and they’re flying United,” Linda Jojo, United’s chief customer officer, said in a statement. “We're focused on delivering a great experience for our younger passengers and their parents and know it often starts with the right seat. We look forward to rolling out more family-friendly features this year.”

Many carriers offer customers the option to pay extra for seat selection or pay no fee and have their seat assigned to them. But groups traveling together often find themselves sitting apart if they don’t pay more to choose their seats.

A search on United’s website Monday morning found an adult and child with Basic Economy tickets from New York to Chicago in April would have to pay an additional $128 roundtrip to sit together under the airline’s existing policy.

The Biden administration has targeted the practice in recent months. 

In July, the U.S. Transportation Department issued a notice urging airlines “to do everything in their power to ensure that children who are age 13 or younger are seated next to an accompanying adult with no additional charge.” The department said it receives a low number of complaints about family seating, but some of those complaints have been about children as young as 11 months old not being seated next to a parent.

In December, the Transportation Department proposed a new rule that would require airlines and online ticket sellers to disclose upfront any fees for seat selection, luggage, changes or cancellations.

During his State of the Union address earlier this month, President Joe Biden called for Congress to pass a legislation that would ban or cap what he described as “junk fees” — including airlines charging extra for parents and their children to sit together, hotels charging “resort fees,” and cable, internet and cellphone companies charging fees for switching to another provider.

“We’ll prohibit airlines from charging up to $50 roundtrip for families just to sit together,” Biden said. “Baggage fees are bad enough. They can’t just treat your child like a piece of luggage. Americans are tired of being played for suckers.”