{"id":19420,"date":"2025-12-13T18:28:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T10:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19420"},"modified":"2025-12-13T18:28:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T10:28:47","slug":"chinas-airlines-in-the-hot-seat-over-hidden-extra-fees-as-watchdog-steps-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19420","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s airlines in the hot seat over hidden extra fees as watchdog steps in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2025\/12\/12\/fcc38ca6-b13c-424c-90cc-c93bf3586a78_0c9ef723.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China\u2019s airlines are encountering severe turbulence over their growing use of extra charges like seat selection fees, as passengers, state media and a consumer protection watchdog slam the practice as a violation of customers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The controversy reflects the difficulties Chinese airlines face as they try to strike a delicate balance between profitability and service quality, with an industry insider cautioning that companies may not be able to scrap extra fees completely.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Seat selection fees \u2013 long a bugbear of travellers in the West \u2013 have become more common in China over recent years, as airlines <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">facing squeezed profit margins<\/span> seek out extra revenue sources.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But the trend has sparked heated online backlash, leading Chinese state broadcaster CCTV to air a programme criticising the fees and a consumer rights agency to launch an investigation.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The probe by the Jiangsu provincial consumers association found that China\u2019s major state-owned carriers now routinely charge passengers extra to secure a window or aisle seat, or to sit in rows near exits with more legroom.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On average, one-third of economy class seats on the carriers\u2019 flights are unavailable for free selection during online check-in, according to the association. The free seats tend to be in the middle of a row or near the back of the aircraft, where there is more noise and the effects of turbulence are greater.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3336222\/chinas-airlines-hot-seat-over-hidden-extra-fees-watchdog-steps?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China\u2019s airlines are encountering severe turbulence over their growing use of extra charges like seat selection fees, as passengers, state media and a consumer protection&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[8587,6292,5402,4782,3020,662,12800,2714,4281],"class_list":["post-19420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-airlines","tag-chinas","tag-extra","tag-fees","tag-hidden","tag-hot","tag-seat","tag-steps","tag-watchdog","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}