NiceLanding

Okay, that seems like enough to make it worth doing for BA and is still only a modest increment on top of the cost to buy into J. Many people won't care enough to bother and it makes more of the better seats available for those who do care, especially elites who won't be paying the fees. I don't know if BA does it this way, but it would make sense to apply the charge only to discounted or buy-up J, though.

Frankly I had been trained for so long to not expect advance seat assignments on foreign carriers at all that I might have been willing to pay when it mattered to me. It was actually quite a pleasant surprise to discover that not only will BA allow me (free) advance seat assignments, but even the best exit row seats are open to me. That goes a long way to replacing the (mostly-theoretical in my case) ability to upgrade LH flights with UA instruments.