That's an interesting question. They certainly seem to be keeping loads high through lower prices, but whether that is to retain existing customers or replace churn is hard to tell. The increased use of meta-search in the leisure market (and possibly also in unmanaged corporate) means they pay one way or another to acquire customers on many bookings where they did not have to before. Hence all the cost cutting to shore up profits. IAG's 3rd quarter numbers will make interesting reading.

We seem to have got a fair way from the OP's comments about paid seat selection, which of course predates all the recent kerfuffle by some distance.