You booked one PNR. You expected the airline to seat you together. Then the seat map opened and the only "free" options were three rows apart — and every adjacent pair had a ₹300–₹800 tag on it. Now you're wondering whether there's actually a way around the fee, or if paying is just the price of flying together in India now.
Short answer: sometimes yes, sometimes no. Here's what actually works.
If you're flying with a child 12 or under
You don't need to pay. Under DGCA's ATC 01 of 2024, every Indian carrier — IndiGo, Air India, Akasa, SpiceJet — has to seat at least one parent or guardian next to a child aged 12 or under, free of charge. If the airline's seat map is trying to charge you to sit next to your own kid, you're within your rights to skip the paid seats, call the airline, and get it corrected. This one is a hard rule, not a request.
If you're all adults
This is where it gets uncomfortable. The DGCA rule that would've given families 60% free adjacent seats was put on hold within two weeks in April 2026, so for adult groups — couples, siblings, friends, grandparents traveling with grown children — there's no rule forcing the airline to seat you together for free. But there are still three things worth trying before you give in and pay.
Trick 1: Don't select seats at booking, wait for auto-assignment
If you skip seat selection entirely, the airline's system will auto-assign seats at check-in — and for passengers on the same PNR, it usually tries to keep you together, especially if the flight isn't full. It's not guaranteed, and on packed weekend routes it often fails, but for a mid-week off-peak flight it works surprisingly often. Just be ready with a Plan B if it doesn't.
Trick 2: Check back closer to departure
Seat maps aren't static. As other passengers check in and shift things around, adjacent free seats open up. Web check-in usually opens 48 hours out — check it then, check it again 24 hours out, and check it once more an hour before boarding. On many flights, a free adjacent pair appears somewhere in the map by the time you actually check in.
Trick 3: Swap with another passenger on the flight
Once the flight is full and everyone's checked in, the only "available" adjacent seats left are the ones other passengers are sitting in. If someone in your row is a solo flyer and one of your group is in an aisle they don't mind giving up, a direct swap costs nothing and works instantly — as long as both sides agree. This used to depend entirely on luck at the gate. It doesn't have to anymore.
Bottom line: if you're flying with a child under 13, the airline has to seat you together for free — insist on it. If you're all adults, skipping seat selection or checking back closer to departure gets you there for free some of the time. When it doesn't, a direct swap with another passenger is the only remaining free option.
Get more control over your seat
CoSeat lets you check, once you have a confirmed PNR, whether another passenger on your flight is open to swapping — so if the free-seat tricks don't work out, you've still got a real option that doesn't cost you a rupee.