Want to choose your seat? Pay up at British Airways

We’ve seen airlines add extra charges to reserve popular exit-row seats and aisle seats. But are you ready for this one?  Starting Oct. 7, British Airways plans to charge you just to select a seat. That’s right: $30 to $90 for the right to choose a seat any time up to 24 hours before flying. After that time, you get a free pick of what’s left. Middle seat, anyone?

“Every airline is looking for new revenue streams [after] the bottom fell out of the business,” said British Airways spokesman John Lampl. At least this fee is optional, he said.

“It’s for the customer who, two or three or four months out, wants to have that peace of mind that they have that particular seat,” Lampl said. “It’s a service that benefits the customer and at the same time generates revenue for British Airways.”

And boy, could Lampl’s airline use the money. But then, so could you, right?

So here’s the 411 on the new policy, which also adds a fee to chose an exit-row seat. The details were taken from an e-mail that went out this morning to travel agents. Don’t look for the info on the website; it wasn’t up there when I checked, and Lampl said a news release hadn’t been issued:

Start date: Effective Oct. 7.

Who pays and how much: Customers flying in World Traveller (coach) or World Traveller Plus (premium coach) ) pay $30 if they want to chose their seat up to 24 hours in advance on long-haul flights. (Currently, coach customers,  with some exceptions, are not allowed to choose a seat, for free or not, until 24 hours before the flight time, Lampl said.) If they want an exit-row seat, they can pay $75 from 10 days to four days before the flight.

Customers in Club World (business class) pay $90 to choose a seat up to 24 hours ahead; there are no exit-row seats in business class, Lampl explained. (Currently, business customers, with some exceptions, are not allowed to choose a seat, for free or not, until 24 hours before the flight, he said.)

The seat-choice fees are lower for short-haul flights.

Who doesn’t: Generally, customers in first class and certain high-mileage frequent fliers.

Spin: Here’s how British Airways described the new fees in their e-mail to agents: “Effective Oct. 7, 2009, your British Airways customers will have more control over their seating, with our new paid seating option.”  I kid you not.

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

Photo: British Airways jets at London’s Heathrow Airport on July 31, 2009. Credit: Sang Tan/ Associated Press

Related stories:

British Airways reducing free-baggage allowance

American Airlines lowers free-bag limit for international flights

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 3:15 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Airline travel, Business Travel, Europe, Frequent Flier, Global, Great Britain, Luxury Travel, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.