Extortionate seat reservation fees

[signed]

Volotea started serving my local countryside airport with a route to London, which I will duly try later in the year

But what is up with 29€ per seat per leg pricing for the basic seats (€40 for the front row) for an hour flight? Even Ryanair is not that extortionate.

Same with BA, what's up with the £17 for a regular seat on a 1 hour flight

 

[AlastairFraser]

Volotea started serving my local countryside airport with a route to London, which I will duly try later in the year

But what is up with 29€ per seat per leg pricing for the basic seats (€40 for the front row) for an hour flight? Even Ryanair is not that extortionate.

Same with BA, what's up with the £17 for a regular seat on a 1 hour flight

Maybe they're anticipating that most people will travel without bags, and are trying to find alternatives to make the route viable.
BA are just greedy - their flights are expensive as it is, and their service not that great these days.

 

[Watershed]

BA's seat selection fees are indeed steep, but they do at least have a reason - it keeps status holders happy. Having fees which are so high discourages most people from selecting seats beforehand, meaning that status holders (and business travellers paying for mega-expensive fully flexible Y/J fares) have a good choice of seats even if they book relatively late. It also means that offering free seat selection is a notable status perk they can advertise.

For the low-cost airlines, where there isn't the same status-based incentive, I cannot understand why the likes of Wizzair (and seemingly Volotea) charge so much. In many cases you can pay the same as the fare in seat selection fees! Ryanair and easyJet have the right idea - they sell the 'normal' seats relatively cheap, and thus incentivise people to pay for it even if they're not hugely bothered. For those who are happy to spend more money, even the 'premium' (emergency exit/front row) seats aren't too expensive.

 

[Mojo]

Same with BA, what's up with the £17 for a regular seat on a 1 hour flight

With BA, (and similarly with EasyJet) there is really no need to select a seat, unless you particularly want a specific seat, as their system will attempt to seat groups together. You'd have to be really unlucky to end up being split up as a couple. Somewhat ironically it's probably more likely in Business class that you end up getting split up just because of the number of seats per row. The biggest cheek with BA is how they charge more for Business class seats despite most of them being equal.

With the likes of WizzAir and Ryanair which splits up groups then there is more of a need for it. It's a bit more palatable with Ryanair as their seats toward the middle of the plane are quite reasonably priced. If you don't want to select specific seats, WizzAir even has an option to pay to ensure that you sit with your travelling companion!

 

[signed]

their flights are expensive as it is

My London-Glasgow/Edinburgh-London open-jaw was actually cheaper than on EasyJet + leaving at more convenient time for us, but yeah, some are steep.

 

[Segedunum]

With Wizz/Ryanair (also noticed this on Vueling) - seat selection charges are also based on what they seem to think people will pay - so it depends on flight length, time of day etc etc.

Wizz have demanded some absolutely insane prices before (outstripping the flight cost), while Ryanair will do seats for £4/£5 on certain flights. My record is 1,99EUR on Vueling from Palma to Barcelona!

IIRC it was Pegasus and Sky Express where row 1 was barely any different to the several rows behind in terms of cost (and neither were much more than about 10EUR).

 

[AlastairFraser]

With Wizz/Ryanair (also noticed this on Vueling) - seat selection charges are also based on what they seem to think people will pay - so it depends on flight length, time of day etc etc.

Yep, I've seen this with baggage charges too.

My London-Glasgow/Edinburgh-London open-jaw was actually cheaper than on EasyJet + leaving at more convenient time for us, but yeah, some are steep.

Domestic flights don't seem to be too bad price wise, but again most don't really want to be flying for those kind of journeys (Belfast an exception for domestics I guess). Flights to continental Europe are much more useful, and consistently more expensive than a LCC + bags, except during sales (which is fine IF fees were not added on top.)

 

[route101]

Yep, I've seen this with baggage charges too.

Domestic flights don't seem to be too bad price wise, but again most don't really want to be flying for those kind of journeys (Belfast an exception for domestics I guess). Flights to continental Europe are much more useful, and consistently more expensive than a LCC + bags, except during sales (which is fine IF fees were not added on top.)

The domestic flights can be as low as £40 one way if you are flexible but quite often its expensive when you want to fly, I sometimes wonder if that cookies that does that too. I also see some very high one way fares £200 and above.

 

[AlastairFraser]

The domestic flights can be as low as £40 one way if you are flexible but quite often its expensive when you want to fly, I sometimes wonder if that cookies that does that too. I also see some very high one way fares £200 and above.

Indeed. The domestics are OK, but a lot of them can be done cheaply and even sometimes quicker by rail (once you factor in check in time and security, plus travel to the city centre - especially Manchester/Newcastle to London). There are less non-air alternatives to the continent, so BA's pricing there can force you onto Ryanair/EasyJet a lot of the time.

 

[Butts]

Indeed. The domestics are OK, but a lot of them can be done cheaply and even sometimes quicker by rail (once you factor in check in time and security, plus travel to the city centre - especially Manchester/Newcastle to London). There are less non-air alternatives to the continent, so BA's pricing there can force you onto Ryanair/EasyJet a lot of the time.

Try getting from Inverness /Aberdeen to the South of England without spending a day on a Train !

BA Silver is the sweet spot Free Seats including Exit Rows, Fast Track Security and Lounge Access.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Try getting from Inverness /Aberdeen to the South of England without spending a day on a Train !

BA Silver is the sweet spot Free Seats including Exit Rows, Fast Track Security and Lounge Access.

Oh yeah, I know! BA's fares usually aren't cheap on those routes either. It's more the London to Manchester/Newcastle and sometimes Edinburgh/Glasgow which are cheap ime.

Your average person looking for reasonably priced low fares isn't likely to be in a position to fly BA regularly enough to earn status.

 

[takno]

I'm not sure I've ever paid for a specific seat, except on United where a chunk of the plane has basically double the legroom, which matters on an 8 hour flight.

Not booking a seat on Norwegian yesterday got me a row to myself at the back of the plane, and meant I was about the 10th person off at the destination. Even for Ryanair on the way out I was in a window seat on row 7.

Obviously for groups who want to sit together it's annoying, but even then if you're not travelling with children it's worth evaluating the benefits of having a couple of hours peaceful time on your own

 

[signed]

Won the seat lottery, got an aisle and a window seat in the first quarter, saved 70€ in seat reservation fee