I have paid for seat selection in the past, but I can see both sides of the argument.

Benefits such as priority boarding, lounge access and the hard product itself are based on allocation of a finite, but predictable, amount of resources for an agreed price.

However seat selection costs BA literally nothing to deliver, but it costs other passengers in the cabin, because they may miss out on the best seats. BA can't allocate seats based on status or fare, at least not before OLCI opens, because passengers buy at different times.

I've bought a ticket for LHR - LAS in November; I may be literally the only person in the WTP cabin at the moment but by the time I fly, I will be two tier levels higher but probably further down the pecking order.

So those who buy full-fare, flexible tickets and those who have status (which is BA's proxy for - we need to keep this customer loyal) get to choose; those to whom seat selection really matters get to pay, and the rest of the world get to take their chances at T-24.

It's far from perfect but if you fly J to LAX for £10k and never fly again, the risk to BA of losing your business is zero: even if you only make an annual LGW - JER there is *some* downside risk if you decide to go elsewhere.