Govt minister accuses airlines of ‘hoodwinking’ public over paying for seats
Airlines look set to face a crackdown on the use of algorithms that split up families on flights, forcing them to pay extra if they want to sit together, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper reports digital minister Margot James condemned the software as ‘a very cynical, exploitative means . . . to hoodwink the general public’.
She told a parliamentary communications committee: "Some airlines have set an algorithm to identify passengers of the same surname travelling together.
"They’ve had the temerity to split the passengers up, and when the family want to travel together they are charged more."
The government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation is set to be launched this week to ‘identify and address any areas where clearer guidelines and regulation is needed’ to govern the use of data and data-enabled technologies, the Sunday Times says.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is also understood to have written to large carriers asking how their algorithms work, particularly when it comes to separating passengers travelling together.
Last month the CAA reported that customers were wasting up to £175m a year on unnecessary allocated seating fees.
Almost half (45%) of people who pay to sit next to their companions would be placed together anyway, the regulator claimed. It wants airlines to tell passengers the likelihood of being split up unless they pay extra to guarantee a seat.
The Sunday Times recently revealed how some airlines are charging couples and families extra to ensure they can sit together.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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