The Airline Fee You May Have Never Heard Of

Not long ago I got a question from a fellow who was pretty upset about an unexpected fee. He asked, "When the hell did airlines start charging for seats?"



My answer: Not all airlines do this, but some have been charging extra for seats for years and more are joining the party. There are ways to avoid this fee but the first thing you need to do is understand what the fee is and isn't.

When we buy a plane ticket in economy class, most of us assume we're buying a seat. True, and we will get "a" seat, but it may not be the one we want. I'm not talking about more legroom; by now we know we must pay a premium for those. This fee for most-wanted seats concerns standard aisle seats and window seats.

Airlines have figured out there's a demand for seats next to the aisles and windows, and whenever there's a demand for something -- whether for checked-bags or blankets -- airlines slap a fee on it, and that's what they're doing for seats. Actually, it's not a fee for aisles and windows, per se; it's a "seat selection" fee. You don't pay for a specific seat but for the privilege of choosing a seat ahead of other passengers. Call it a cut-in-line fee and it doesn't have to cost much; I've seen such fees advertised for $6 and up. It may be worth it if you must have a particular seat or want to be sure of sitting with family or friends.

Like all fees, it's not mandatory and as I said, many airlines don't charge for seat selection. But some of those that don’t charge, do have a catch: Spirit Airlines will randomly assign you a seat for free and ditto for Frontier. Others, likeLufthansa, let you choose yourself but not until the final 24 hours before take-off. Either way, the odds of sitting with your travel companions is not very good while your chances of getting stuck in a middle seat are vastly improved.

By the way, not all airlines that have seat selection fees use it for all flights. For example, there is no seat selection fee if you fly Aer Lingus from New York to Dublin but you will pay for flying Dublin to London.

(Culled from abcnews.com)