Suppose you’re taking a trip. The first thing you would do is check flight fares in case you plan to fly. Now, if everything is within budget, you’d go ahead with your flight booking. By the time you arrive at the final payment page, the fares look significantly higher. There’s taxes, convenience fees and add-ons, such as charges for refreshments and seats.

Over the past week, prices for these add-ons, especially seat fares, have drawn particular attention.

On Thursday, The Times of India reported that the government has expressed concern that airlines and travel aggregators are using “unfair trade practices” and showing all available seats as paid despite making the mandatory check-in “free”. There are also worries about airlines denying boarding to flyers and issuing delayed refunds. The government has issued a warning to online booking portals and airlines.

At a media briefing, consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said that in the past year, the National Consumer Helpline—a portal where citizens can register their grievances against government agencies, private companies or regulators—had received about 10,000 complaints related to the airline sector alone. The government will hold a meeting on 8 November with top executives of airlines and travel portals to discuss these consumer grievances.

Singh also told TOI that airlines were resorting to measures that “subverted consumer autonomy and manipulates decision making” and that such “deceptive and manipulative conduct” exploits consumers and can be classified as an unfair trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act.

Now, this must sound familiar. Airlines are essentially using “dark patterns”—deceptive interface design or tricks—to nearly force customers to make choices against their will. The consumer affairs department has been trying to restrict such practices for some time now. We have explained what “dark patterns” are and how they are used in an earlier edition.

The question here is, are airlines allowed to demand fares based on preferred seats?

To charge or not to charge: Indian airlines can “unbundle” airfares. This means that they can charge flyers separately for different service components, breaking up the total fare. The idea behind the practice was to offer lower and affordable fares without any add-ons to price-sensitive passengers.

In fact, airlines are not out of line when they charge for seats because the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s guidelines allow them to do so. In 2013, the DGCA had allowed airlines to charge for certain seats, capping the amount at 25% of the total seating capacity. In 2015, it struck down this limit to ensure airlines were able to offer more competitive prices.

According to the DGCA’s “Air Transport Circular 03” of 2015:

“The airfares so established by the airlines also include charges for some of the services rendered by them. On the basis of various feedback received, it is felt that many a times these services provided by the airlines may not be required by the passengers while travelling. Considering the fact that unbundling of services and charges thereto has the potential to make basic fare more affordable and provides consumer an option of paying for the services which he/she wishes to avail, it has been decided by the Government to allow following services to be unbundled and charged separately on opt-in basis:

(i) Preferential seating

(ii) Meal/snack/drink charges (except drinking water)

(iii) Charges for using airline lounges

(iv) Check-in baggage charges (above 15 kg of free check-in baggage allowance).

(v) Sports equipment charges

(vi) Musical instrument carriage

(vii) Fee for special declaration of valuable baggage.”

‘Preferential’ seating: Ideally, preferential or chargeable seats offer some premium features, such as a better view (window seat), better access (aisle seat) or greater convenience (seats offering more legroom). IndiGo and Akasa Air charge Rs 200-1,550 for a seat, while fares for SpiceJet are between Rs 98 and Rs 1,349 for a preferential seat. Air India and Vistara auto-assign seats without charges, unless you opt for it.

However, airlines seem to be testing the limits when it comes to these add-ons. At the moment, customers are also being charged for the least liked, middle-row seats.

In 2013, when the unbundling of services was introduced, a DGCA official had told Business Standard that “the middle seat in an aircraft cannot be termed a preferential one”.

In 2018, airlines started charging even for web check-ins. However, this stopped after Suresh Prabhu, the aviation minister at the time, intervened.

The issue of seat fares has been brought up several times over the years because of passenger complaints. Last year, for instance, a report by a parliamentary panel said that the practice of airlines charging varying fares from passengers for seat allocation was “arbitrary and unjustifiable”. A parliamentary standing committee wanted airlines to charge uniform fares—currently, some seats cost more than others—and the government to monitor the charges.

According to The Hindu, the panel had rejected the civil aviation ministry’s response that such fares were “a contractual matter between airline and passenger, which is commercial in nature”, calling it “not at all justified”.

What do passengers say? What is under fire now is that flyers are made to feel that “preferential seating” is hardly an avoidable charge because the “skip” button is well concealed.

“It sucks. There should be free seats by default or [airlines should] just show the original ticket price,” says Prajwal S., a flier. “I end up paying because the trip is important every time.”

On being asked if he was aware that paying for seats could be skipped, he said, “Really? You can? The UX is designed to make it seem like you don’t have the option.”

This was also flagged by journalist Jagriti Chandra on X (formerly Twitter), who said:

“...the display by default is the front of the passenger cabin, with zero free seats. Since there is no scroll bar to move to the rear of the cabin and select seats, most passengers are left confused and may even be forced to pay for seat selection.”

Using low-cost carrier IndiGo as an example, she added that the airline does not mention that passengers can have “auto-assigned” seats (in contrast, the Indian railways’ website shows this). “‘Skip’ at the bottom of the screen doesn’t give the same impression,” she noted in a tweet.

A quick glance across airlines shows that the few free seats on display are middle-row ones, at the far end of the aircraft. It seems airlines want passengers to not pay for seats specifically but rather for the privilege of choice they have to opt for a seat.

“According to their site, all seats are always taken, but if you request at the counter just before boarding, they usually accommodate. That’s what I do,” says another flier, asking not to be named. “Sometimes, they give you aisle or window seats if they are still available.”

A survey published last month revealed that 47% of the 34,000 respondents in 308 districts of India had to pay for a seat of their choice. A majority of those surveyed (51%) said they did not get an option to secure a non-chargeable seat when they last booked their flight tickets.

The most affected, according to the survey, were families or groups of travellers who wanted to be seated together. Most airlines, when you opt for an auto-assigned seat, warn that not opting for paid seats could result in travel partners being seated separately.

Apart from levying additional charges, another pricing mechanism that airlines widely use and significantly benefit from is dynamic pricing of airfares. Similar to surge pricing, airlines hike prices based on real-time demand—this is why fares are high during festive seasons. They use website cookies, powered by algorithm-based and AI-based methods to create dynamic pricing models. As a result, fliers have to be wary of using too many search engines to check prices or ‘overshowing’ interest in a certain sector or certain routes, because that could push prices up. Interestingly, nearly all airlines, including Air India and IndiGo use real-time tracking services to effectively use such pricing models to increase their revenue. Between additional, veiled charges and overall high ticket fares, customers really have to scour the internet, using all devices at their disposal, to get themselves the cheapest deal.