Originally Posted by dtremit

Not exactly. US has two sets of seats blocked -- Preferred seats, which are free to elites, and Choice seats, which cost money for everyone. Typically the Preferred seats are better than the Choice seats, though YMMV.

That being said, no elite should ever be charged for exit row seats, even if they are Choice seats:

"AAdvantage elite members will still get exit row seats free of charge."(from http://www.usairways.com/en-US/trave...oiceseats.html)