Alright, here's a thing about seat selection. I'm pretty tall, and I have family overseas. Which means that as a student, or when I didn't earn a whole lot, I'd have to get economy tickets to visit them (boy am I looking forward to get a lie-flat seat this year).

I couldn't fly ANY airline with free seat selection because all the exit row / bulkhead seats were taken a few months out, most of the time. So instead, I picked another (cheaper) airline with paid seat selection, where, conveniently, I could pay for an exit row seat. Wow, shocker, I know.

I wouldn't disagree with a model where only better seats are for pay (say the first 10 rows of the cabin and anything with extra legroom), but that's not always how it is. I rarely fly with other people so I can see the benefit in that. But if you're travelling alone, what do you care?

Also, I get that it's annoying to pay for seats, but if you had flown any return in club world in the past year or two you'd be bronze. Just saying.