BA to Start Charging for Early Seat Selection

Ticket and baggage fees being comparable, I will fly a different airline.

Imagine if you are separated from your kids on a 10 hour flight - I'm sure the folks sitting next to your kids may not be happy. The alternative is spending over $60 (RT) per person..

Also interesting to note that Business class passengers are not spared this fee.

As I read the article, I wonder. Why would I pay a £60 upgrade for long haul trips in business class. Aren't these seats pretty good anyway.

Like Frank II I also wonder how long before US airlines follow suit.

Even in business class not all seats are equal. I am very familiar with United's business class and like to be seated far away from the galley/bathrooms due to the noise and the crew chatting away while I'm trying to sleep.

Also, I'm assuming if you have a connecting flight to somewhere else in Europe that BA will charge you 2 x ($32 + 16) for a roundtrip - I wonder how many folks will pay an extra $100 per person just to have seat assignments. I see this move driving away business in the short term until the other carriers match. I also can see a lot of angry passengers that book with BA and then told they can't get seat assignments without forking over a lot of cash.

Have they lost their minds? This is really stupid, in my opinion -- and most especially, the idea that they are going to charge business class passengers up to 60 Pounds for a seat reservation!

I can't afford business class, but even assuming I could, a round trip to London from San Francisco in late November on British currently costs $3624. After paying that, I'm then going to pay them 60 Pounds more for a seat reservation? No way! What a joke.

I hope there is a huge pushback from passengers on this....especially from the business-class group. What an insult to those people who are already paying such premium prices. (I am not one of them). When one is paying more in taxes and fees than the cost of the flight, something is clearly amiss.