Yesterday, I stumbled upon a new feature on IndiGo’s website while selecting seats for a family trip. The airline was calling out seats which were occupied by females. Marked in Pink, it not only showed the seats blocked and already occupied, it also showed a text on hovering over those seats which read “ Occupied by Female”. I immediately tried to see if the same shows up in case of a single male passenger booking and it did not.
On social media, the post got multiple comments – with many comparing it to bus travel where this is fairly common, others calling it unnecessary and a handful informing that this feature has been live for over a week now.
End of the day, the airline released a statement which says
IndiGo is proud to announce the introduction of a new feature that aims to make the travel experience more comfortable for our female passengers. This has been introduced basis market research, and is currently in pilot mode aligning with our #GirlPower ethos. The feature offers visibility of seats booked by female passengers, only during web check-in. It is specifically tailored to PNRs with women travellers – solo as well as part of family bookings. We are committed to providing an unparalleled travel experience for all our passengers, and this new feature is just one of the many steps we are taking towards achieving that goal.
What does this mean?
The airline in its statement said that the “visibility” was only during web check-in. However, I saw it under “manage booking” for a future date of travel which is not within the web check-in window. If one tries to book a flight, the seat select option does not show the seats occupied by female passengers.
Female passengers can see other seats where female passengers are sitting and can select seats accordingly. The airline has not explicitly blocked seats next to female passengers for male passengers, yet. In a PNR which has both male and female passengers, it allows any passenger to select a seat next to another female passenger – not part of the same PNR but being shown as “Occupied by Female”.
Currently, it seems like it is a feature which has limited use, since it has pure information for fellow female travellers. This feature is in pilot mode and could see multiple changes before it evolves and takes its final shape.
Tail Note
Over the last few years, India has had cases where there male passengers have been booked for assaulting crew and fellow lady passengers. At the same time there have been cases of men being falsely accused of misbehaviour.
Vistara has its WomanFlyer initiative where it allocates only window or aisle seats to solo women travellers or those travelling with children.
What are your views about this feature? Over engineering? Need of the hour? Worth trying?
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