BA greed in a time of very low demand
I was just reading another thread about selecting exit row seats for free when a passenger holds status and it got me thinking about the benefit of charging for seat selection in times of low demand.
I recently had a weekend in GIB, flying at the back of the bus. I had thought about booking exit row seats for each leg but BA wanted £40+ for each leg of the journey. This was more than the actual cost of my ticket.
On both legs of the trip the plane was about 25% full and none of the exit row seats were taken. Once the doors were closed, I asked if I could move to an exit row, and both times I was allowed. Total cost to me - £0.
I appreciate there is little appetite to fly in these difficult times, but surely no-one in their right mind is going to pay the exorbitant seat selection fees on short haul, so would BA not be better off just removing seat selection fees for the foreseeable future, perhaps in the hope of stimulating a little more demand?