Want to Sit With Your Family on a Flight? Be Prepared to Pay Extra

The ‘seat selection fee’ or ‘family fee’ has been around for eight years, but will be put into effect rigorously.

The latest in the airline industry is to levy a heavy fee on families that make requests to be seated together. (Photo: iStock)

While advertisements for airlines depict the most hospitable service to families, the reality might soon be different. The latest in the airline industry is to levy a heavy fee on families that make requests to be seated together.

Called the ‘seat selection fee’ or the ‘family fee’, the rule has reportedly been around for over eight years, but will now be put into effect rigorously.

Air India reportedly introduced the fee back in May and Jet Airways too has revised its seat selection fee recently.

On Air India for instance, a family of three flying from Mumbai to London will have to pay Rs 9,000 extra – one-way. On Jet Airways, it would cost Rs 4,500 one-way, reports Times of India, and if the seats with more leg room are chosen, it could cost up to Rs 10,500.

On 12 December, a circular was sent to travel agents that provided a comprehensive list of the tariff and the selection fee chart.

The Indian aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, had recently put a limit on baggage fees and cancellation fees. Following that, airlines have resorted to seat selection fee to raise revenue from non-ticket sources.

According to Times of India, Air India on their website has not specified details of the selection fee and has put a “blanket preferred seat price” of Rs 3,500 per seat on flights to the US and Rs 3,000 per seat on flights to the UK.

The DGCA should carry out a comparative study on the seat selection fees charged by airlines in other countries. But it has not yet come out with the revised guidelines on all the charges that airlines can levy for unbundled services (ancillary revenue sources). They should put the guidelines on their website, in public domain, for the passenger to refer to readily.

Sudhakara Reddy, Air Passengers Association of India to <i>Times of India</i>

(Source: Times of India)