Airlines’ online booking systems slammed for forcing families apart

Airlines are using online booking systems that appear designed to force families to pay more money, or else risk being seated separately on the plane.

Airlines are attempting to extort extra money from parents by allocating their children seats between strangers.

An investigation by News Corp Australia reveals the worst offender is low-cost carrier AirAsia, which claims to do its “best to seat families together” but then assigns them split seats when entire rows are vacant.

Parents of children as young as two have complained of separated allocations by the Malaysian airline, which flies from all mainland state capitals except Adelaide.

The additional cost to be sure of being united can be as much as $100 per flight for a family of four.

TigerAir and Scoot say the only way to be sure of being together on its flights is to pay to select seats.

Separating family members is not standard practice across the industry.

Jetstar, for instance, does not break up group bookings.

Trish and Vick Doolar of Pakenham in Victoria faced paying AirAsia hundreds of dollars extra to be seated with their children across several flights to, within and from Thailand until News Corp Australia intervened.

Mrs Doolar had tried to get the airline to seat her family together at no extra charge but had no success.

“I don’t want this to happen to any other family,” Mrs Doolar told News Corp Australia.

Trish and Vick Doolar with children Isha, 16, and Keisha, 7, at Avalon Airport terminal. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Perth father Danny Lewis was also told he needed to fork out more to be with his four-year-old on an AirAsia flight.

He firstly complained over the phone then on Facebook.

“I was left feeling like I was unreasonable for not paying the extra fee,” Mr Lewis told News.

Only at the airport did AirAsia relent.

“It was a major stress right up to boarding the flight,” Mr Lewis said. “I refused to pay the seat allocation fee on principle as I think it is a crooked way of getting families to pay more money.”

AirAsia allocated another Melbourne woman a seat away from her two children, both under four.

Her husband wrote to AirAsia via Facebook saying that while he understood “the power of upselling, but please in your program algorithm implement some feature to scan through the booking and not do this kind of upselling to lone parents travelling with young kids.”

A Perth mother this week complained to AirAsia that she and her husband had been assigned seats that were not with their children, aged eight and two.

In May, a Sydney mum raised the same concern with TigerAir.

“My husband and I are travelling with our two kids, yet your auto seat allocation is placing us all separately in different rows when there are plenty of seats together,” she wrote on its Facebook page. “Surely attempting to seat minors on their own is not in your policy?”

TigerAir said it wasn’t its policy and that the family was separated because of a one-off IT glitch.

A TigerAir spokesman said “we recommend that customers purchase their preselected seats when booking to guarantee where they are sitting before flying”.

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AirAsia splits families even when there are entirely vacant rows. Source: Supplied

AirAsia’s website says “we do our best to seat families together when we allocate seating but we can’t guarantee this, so it’s best to select your seats when you book”.

A spokeswoman said “it is never our intention to split families or groups apart in order to generate revenue. On the day of departure, our check-in staff and cabin crew will always try to assist if guests wish to make changes to their system-generated seating allocation”.

However, many parents are likely to have paid up before going to the airport and after seeing their automatic seat allocation.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it couldn’t “comment on complaints or potential investigations about specific businesses”.

“Under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses must not make statements that are false, misleading or deceptive to consumers.”

That said, “there is nothing in the Australian Consumer Law that prohibits a business charging a fee for a guaranteeing a service it otherwise might possibly provide for free,” an ACCC spokesman said.

Transport minister and ex consumer minister Michael McCormack said: “The Liberals and Nationals take consumer protection seriously and we expect airlines to comply with the Australian consumer law.”

Originally published as Airlines’ online booking systems slammed for forcing families apart