For my 2 Alaska bookings I've not paid a booking fee (no status). They proactively offered it the first time and the second time refused so I hung up and the next agent agreed to do it. (Something also got messed up which resulted in me getting a free hold bag too!) As has been pointed out they are 100% in the right to refuse, but it's worth trying to get out of it anyway.

And £28 is correct (AA quote £29). Canada has high airport charges and the US has high international arrival charges. I can't imagine YVR-SEA has ever been $6 (in recent history anyway) - you're presumably thinking of SEA-YVR, which avoids both the Canadian airport fees and the US international arrivals taxes.