Originally Posted by
upinsmoke
No, most of the ones I've seen are getting them for free because MCE are the only seats available when they check in since there's not enough Elites/paying passengers to fill it up.
You can tell by the BP, if they paid for it, they'd be Group 1, not 3 or 4 as I very often see.
The system has been a success at UA and DL, so passengers definitely are paying for it. I don't see AA going through this exercise for naught.