With the corona pandemic on the upsurge, most of the airlines have decided to make the passengers adopt the process of web check-in and contactless baggage. Statistics report that the majority of the passengers these days opt for web check-in as and the ones who cannot are assisted at the airports. In addition to that, contactless baggage drop which we thought would take some time to implement, have worked wonderfully well.
Passengers may walk up to the baggage drop area, leave their bags on the carousel and walk away. It’s a hassle-free experience and rather than getting your baggage reference tag pasted behind the boarding pass, you can now get it through an SMS.
All these factors have helped expedite the whole process and improved the turnaround time of a customer at a check-in counter and in airports like Mumbai and Hyderabad, which operate e-boarding passes. Passengers can just use their mobile phones and walk all the way to the aircraft.
IndiGo has recently come up with the rule that passengers checking-in at airport counters will have to pay Rs 100 as a convenience fee. This is probably the first airline to introduce such a fee encouraging more passengers to do web check-in for a contactless travel experience in these pandemic times.
Indigo being India’s one of the biggest airlines (in terms of domestic market share) levying this fee, it is just a matter of time before most other carriers here also start doing the same.
Just Like IndiGo, Air Asia also claims that around 90% of their passengers are opting for web check-in and contactless baggage. However, no fee has been introduced so far by Air Asia. Passengers are finding this process quite convenient. Off late, SpiceJet has also come up with the same rule of charging Rs 100 as a convenience fee.
As airlines are now giving out safety kits at the boarding counters and wraparound gowns for middle seat passengers, the customer experience in terms of safety has gone up. The passengers are also abiding by this quite happily.
However, there are a few exemptions to this convenience fee. The fee will not be charged from passengers falling under the below given criteria:
1) For Unaccompanied Minors (UNMR)
2) For Passengers with Medical Assistance (MEDA)
3) For Stretcher Passengers (STCR)
4) For Armed Forces Personnel
5) For Senior Citizens (age 58 years and above as on date of travel)
There is also a fee code for the above-mentioned category. (Fee Code: BPRN). Fee Applicability: INR 100 per passenger per flight (Fee will be charged only once per passenger in case of Via/OND flights)
