Over 44% respondents of survey say they paid extra for flight seats

As much as 44 per cent respondents in a survey complained that they had to pay extra charges to get a seat at the time of purchase of a flight ticket.

Many of the respondents also reported paying between Rs 200 and Rs 2,000 as seat allocation fee, which can amount to 5-40 per cent of the air fare, LocalCircles, which carried out the survey, said in a statement.

It also said there has been a very marginal improvement in the last 12 months in the ability of consumers to get a free seat when booking their flight.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs and consumer regulator CCPA late last year convened a meeting of the airlines on the issue and questioned them about the alleged unfair trade practices and misleading claims of "free" web check-in, it said.

The new survey, which received over 41,000 responses from consumers across 339 districts of the country, has focused on fliers' problems when booking for travel with family members, particularly young children, LocalCircles said.

According to the survey, if the family wants to sit together, per se they end up spending more than what the actual ticket costs as most of the seats are available on extra payment of Rs 200-Rs 2,000 on many airlines.

Else the family members must sit in separate rows as in some airlines only the middle seat requires no extra payment, it added. As per the survey estimates, nearly 80 per cent seats for some airlines now require payment of a seat allocation fee.

About 65 per cent of fliers who booked a flight in the last 12 months, paid extra fee for reserving a seat once or more, the survey added.