Sichuan Airlines Responds to Talks Over "Seat Locking" Issue: Will Provide Feedback to Consumer Council by Agreed Date

Recently, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Council's talks with ten airlines, including China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Air China, Hainan Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, Spring Airlines, and Juneyao Air, regarding issues such as "seat locking" and paid seat selection services, have continued to attract attention. On November 27, a relevant responsible person from Sichuan Airlines told N Video reporters that "the airline's leading department is progressing related work orderly based on previous communications with the Consumer Council and will provide subsequent feedback to the Council by the agreed date."

As previously reported by Nandu, many consumers have reported that when selecting seats online, more convenient and comfortable seats such as those in the front of the economy cabin, window seats, and aisle seats are often locked individually, making them either unavailable for selection or requiring extra payment or redemption with points. The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Council subsequently organized a special consumer investigation and conducted in-depth verification of the ten airlines.

The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Council stated that the current practice of some airlines charging for seats that originally fall within the scope of regular services by locking them is suspected of infringing upon consumers' rights to fair trade and autonomous choice.

Regarding the rectification work for the seat locking issue on flight tickets, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Council put forward two clear requirements to the airlines, demanding that they submit a written report on their rectification progress within 15 working days. First, immediately conduct self-inspection and self-correction, comprehensively review the existing seat selection rules, with a focus on resolving the issue of "excessive seat locking," abolish disguised paid seat selection models such as payment or so-called "point redemption," ensure a reasonable quantity and balanced distribution of free selectable seats, and only retain necessary seat locks for purposes such as "reserving seats for special passengers, ensuring the availability of emergency seats, and maintaining flight load balance." Ordinary economy class basic seats must not be included in the paid category on a large scale.

Second, review and amend the unfair standard terms in the agreement texts suspected of involving "seat locking." There should be no provisions that are unfair or unreasonable to consumers, such as those excluding or limiting consumer rights, reducing or exempting operator responsibilities, or increasing consumer responsibilities. The "rights" of airlines should be confined within a reasonable and transparent framework, corresponding to their obligation to inform.