Back
Back
Flights — Ancillary Guided Flow
Redesigning flight add-ons to make choices clearer — and helping reverse a declining ancillary sales trend.
Role
Product Designer
Platform
Android & IOS
status
Live
Year
2024
Context
Built for the defence community, not the metro commuter
udChalo serves India's armed forces and paramilitary — soldiers, JCOs and NCOs, and their families — concentrated in tier 3/4 towns and cantonment regions. Largely non-technical, often booking for a family member, frequently on a poor connection.
Ancillaries carry commercial weight beyond their own margin: airline partner terms improve as attach rates rise. Every seat sold improves the economics of every ticket.
The Problem
The flow had steps. It didn't have answers.
Ancillary sales were down 21% year-over-year through mid-2024. Five things were broken — none of them the step count.
01) Seats were identical grey shapes; price lived in a colour key below the map.
02) Every meal carried the same generic icon, listed at ₹0, with no veg/non-veg filter.
03) The traveller being booked for sat in a dropdown that hid everyone else.
04) The running total appeared on one step and vanished on the next.
05) A fourth step sold airline merchandise, competing with the three products that mattered.
Approach
One test, applied to every screen
At the moment of each decision, is everything needed to make it visible on screen?
Not fewer steps — better-equipped ones. Skipping stayed possible throughout, and was now said out loud rather than merely permitted. The flow directs attention. It never gates the booking.
Decision 01
Put the price on the seat
A colour key is a second thing to learn before you can do the first. ₹345, FREE, ₹650 now print on the seat itself.
Decision 02
Show every traveller's state, not just the active one
A dropdown hides the rest, so booking for two means remembering where you are. "0 / 2 selected" makes completeness visible.
Decision 03
Make the food look like food
Identical icons and ₹0 on every row made the list unreadable. Photography, a veg mark, and a veg/non-veg filter turn it into a choice.
Decision 04
Never let the total leave the screen
People were adding to a number they could no longer see. The total and fare breakup now stay pinned on every step.
Decision 05
Say "skip" out loud
An upsell that can't be visibly declined is a conversion risk, not a revenue lever. Skip became a header action.
Decision 06
Cut the fourth step
Airline merchandise earned little and diluted the three products the business depends on. Attention is the scarce resource in a checkout, not shelf space.
Outcome
Revenue per booking doubled in the launch month — and held for two years
First 5 Months
₹12.09 → ₹25.15
+108%
Full year 2025
₹38.39
+218%
2026 till date
₹47.36
+292%
First 5 Months
₹12.09 → ₹25.15
+108%
Full year 2025
₹38.39
+218%
2026 till date
₹47.36
+292%
Two reasons it isn't a coincidence
Seasonality
Run the same seven-month/five-month split on 2023 and revenue per booking falls 11%. In 2024 it rose 108%.
Growth
Booking volume declined every year across this window. The flow earned more per booking from a shrinking base.
Back
Flights — Ancillary Guided Flow
Redesigning flight add-ons to make choices clearer — and helping reverse a declining ancillary sales trend.
Role
Product Designer
Platform
Android & IOS
status
Live
Year
2024
Context
Built for the defence community, not the metro commuter
udChalo serves India's armed forces and paramilitary — soldiers, JCOs and NCOs, and their families — concentrated in tier 3/4 towns and cantonment regions. Largely non-technical, often booking for a family member, frequently on a poor connection.
Ancillaries carry commercial weight beyond their own margin: airline partner terms improve as attach rates rise. Every seat sold improves the economics of every ticket.
The Problem
The flow had steps. It didn't have answers.
Ancillary sales were down 21% year-over-year through mid-2024. Five things were broken — none of them the step count.
01) Seats were identical grey shapes; price lived in a colour key below the map.
02) Every meal carried the same generic icon, listed at ₹0, with no veg/non-veg filter.
03) The traveller being booked for sat in a dropdown that hid everyone else.
04) The running total appeared on one step and vanished on the next.
05) A fourth step sold airline merchandise, competing with the three products that mattered.
Approach
One test, applied to every screen
At the moment of each decision, is everything needed to make it visible on screen?
Not fewer steps — better-equipped ones. Skipping stayed possible throughout, and was now said out loud rather than merely permitted. The flow directs attention. It never gates the booking.
Decision 01
Put the price on the seat
A colour key is a second thing to learn before you can do the first. ₹345, FREE, ₹650 now print on the seat itself.
Decision 02
Show every traveller's state, not just the active one
A dropdown hides the rest, so booking for two means remembering where you are. "0 / 2 selected" makes completeness visible.
Decision 03
Make the food look like food
Identical icons and ₹0 on every row made the list unreadable. Photography, a veg mark, and a veg/non-veg filter turn it into a choice.
Decision 04
Never let the total leave the screen
People were adding to a number they could no longer see. The total and fare breakup now stay pinned on every step.
Decision 05
Say "skip" out loud
An upsell that can't be visibly declined is a conversion risk, not a revenue lever. Skip became a header action.
Decision 06
Cut the fourth step
Airline merchandise earned little and diluted the three products the business depends on. Attention is the scarce resource in a checkout, not shelf space.
Outcome
Revenue per booking doubled in the launch month — and held for two years
First 5 Months
₹12.09 → ₹25.15
+108%
Full year 2025
₹38.39
+218%
2026 till date
₹47.36
+292%
Two reasons it isn't a coincidence
Seasonality
Run the same seven-month/five-month split on 2023 and revenue per booking falls 11%. In 2024 it rose 108%.
Growth
Booking volume declined every year across this window. The flow earned more per booking from a shrinking base.