Things in the Sky

Last week British Airways announced some changes to its seat selection process. Currently, only a few groups of people could select their seats at the time of booking, like first class passengers, elites, and those on fully refundable tickets. Others would simply select a seat at the time of check-in 24 hours before their flight. Starting October 7, BA will launch new service allowing those passengers to select their seats in advance for a fee, which ranges from $15 for a domestic flight in coach to $90 for a longhaul flight in business class.

I’d have to say that the new fee is a good idea for a new revenue source, especially from economy passengers, but the fee for those in Club World just seems weird. To me, charging passengers booked in business class an extra $90 for the privilege of selecting a seat that can sell for thousands of dollars simply doesn’t make sense. Sure, there are some discounted business class fares out there, but I still don’t like it.

It will also be interesting to see how elite members of Executive Club, BA’s frequent flier program, will see the move. Silver members and above will still be able to select seats at the time of booking, but now there will be a bit more competition. When Delta tried to roll out Coach Choice Seats, an offering from Northwest, elites in the SkyMiles program weren’t pleased and the program was quickly eliminated,

But at this point it appears that BA is continuing to market itself as a carrier that provides a high-value service. The British Airways “value calculator” still notes that passengers can reserve a seat for free 24 hours before their flight, which is touted as a benefit over EasyJet and Ryanair. Those two LCCs do not assign seats, but do offer product that will allow passengers to be the first to board in hopes of finding a good seat. Those fees can vary for both carriers, but in many cases are cheaper than BA’s new service.