Even Some Middle Seats on Your Flight Now Come at a Cost
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This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington Wise from Charles Schwab is an original podcast that unpacks the stories making news in Washington. Listen at schwab.com slash Washington Wise.
Before we get into today's episode, Your Money Briefing is exploring what you need to know to become a homeowner and to sustain your home. You can get early access to our series, Buying a Home and Keeping It, on WSJ Special Access, available only for WSJ subscribers. Now, on to the show. Here's Your Money Briefing for Wednesday, April 24th. I'm Arianna Espuru for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whelan. The fees airlines are charging for those beloved window and aisle seats are going up. So you might even find yourself paying for a middle seat.
Maybe you want to be in rows 8, 9, 10. Maybe people want to sit together. You know, if you're a couple or you're a family with older kids, that's no longer a guarantee. So people pay up.
How do you decide if that extra fee is worth it? WS Day travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson joins me to discuss after the break.
This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington Wise from Charles Schwab is an original podcast that unpacks the stories making news in Washington. Listen at schwab.com slash Washington Wise.
Along with bag fees, it's common for airlines to charge you to pick your seat if you're willing to shell out some extra cash. WSJ travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson joins me. So, Dawn, I remember the days of being able to pick your seat on a plane for no extra cost. Why have so many airlines shifted toward offering them at a price?
Because they can, is the short answer. They argue that there's limited real estate on a plane so that they can charge more for seats closer to the front of economy. That's been the rationale from the beginning. But what started as smaller amounts now has grown pretty dramatically in terms of the dollar figures travelers are seeing.
Is it that the seats themselves are getting more expensive or it's just more common for them to charge?
Why are airlines charging for seat selection now?
Like, what is the trend we're seeing here?
There's two. You're seeing dollar signs on more seats. Like, if you go on the seat map of a major airline, American, Delta, United, you're seeing dollar signs on many more seats. And The dollar figures in some cases are stunning.
Before we get into the seats that you have to pay for, what kind of seats are still free?
It really depends when you book. There's always going to be some free seats. If you book a flight last minute, you're probably looking at middle seats in the back of the plane. That'll be free. But in my research for my column, I looked at some flights like in June and there were rows and rows of free seats in the back of the plane. So if you don't care where you sit, it's OK.
Other than not wanting to sit in the back of a plane, like you've just mentioned, what are some of the reasons why people opt to choose their seat?
They want to know they're going to have an aisle or a window. They want to know, like, say you're a business traveler and you're On a really tight schedule, maybe you want to be in rows 8, 9, 10. Maybe people want to sit together. You know, if you're a couple or you're a family with older kids and you all want to sit together. That's no longer a guarantee. So people pay up.
In your reporting, you looked at what these seat fees are costing people. Run me through the range that you saw.
Well, for example, I priced a American Airlines flight from Dallas to New York and not last minute, but maybe like a week out. One way was forty four to fifty two dollars. And we're not talking extra legroom seat. This is just a seat assignment. United from Newark to San Francisco. $51 one way. That's all added to the cost of your ticket. Though you'd be sitting, you know, closer to the front of the plane aisles and windows. I mean, on some flights, you will see towards the front of the plane, you could even see seat fees for middle seats.
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