Some Airlines Charging $100 to Pick a Seat
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Here's your money briefing for Wednesday, June 8th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Have you taken a flight lately? There's a lot that can make passengers' blood boil. The crowds, the delays, not to mention the growing list of fees, even for picking out a seat.
A consultant I talked to called these seat fees an economic gift to airlines because it requires literally no investment. They're just monetizing the seat map.
So how high can these fees run? We'll ask Wall Street Journal travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson about that, as well as how passengers can avoid seat fees. That's after the break.
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The price of an airline ticket has gone up with pretty much everything else. But for many air passengers these days, there's a little extra shock in that sticker shock. Airlines charging fees that sometimes exceed $100 just to pick out a seat. So why are airlines doing this, and how can passengers avoid paying? Wall Street Journal travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson is making her Your Money briefing debut, and is here to break down the numbers for us. Hey, Dawn, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
So, Dawn, what's a typical fee for reserving seats?
What is driving airlines to start charging for seat selection?
Well, the unfortunate thing is there is no typical fee. I mean, airlines have some price ranges on their websites, but what I found is a lot of times those even aren't realistic because these prices are dynamic. I interviewed a passenger who paid $27 for an aisle seat, and I found fees as high as $100. As an example, I priced a flight from Atlanta to LAX in mid-July on Delta Airlines and seat 15D, which is an ordinary aisle seat. The price tag that popped up was $104.99 each way.
Wow. So what are the passengers getting in return?
Well, there's different categories of seats. My column focuses on what the airlines love to call preferred seats. And I think there's absolutely nothing preferred about them, except that they're generally near the front of the plane. Airlines argue that people like to get off the plane quicker. There is no extra leg room, no free drinks, no early boarding. You are simply getting a seat that the airline deems is a preferred seat that some people might want to pay more for. This is not just true for seats in the economy cabin. There are examples of international flights in business class that charge seats. For example, British Airways. I priced a $6,000 round-trip ticket, and they still wanted a minimum of $122 to pick my business class seat one way.
Why are the airlines doing this, charging this particular fee?
One word, money. And a consultant I talked to called these seat fees an economic gift to airlines because it requires literally no investment. They're just monetizing the seat map.
All right. So you mentioned that these seat fees can vary. How does a passenger find out what the fee is attached to the seat that they're reserving?
Airlines generally will put a range on their fee charts and they'll say preferred seats or extra seats or this much, but you truly do not find out the true price of how much a particular seat is going to cost to reserve in advance until you start the shopping process.
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