Frequent international traveller... mostly to Asia.

I find myself in Europe in a few weeks, and decided to fly BER - LHR on Business Class on British Air. Booked through BA993 on AMEX travel, and saw no option to choose the seat. I went to the British Air site, entered the record locator, and sadly discovered that these clowns charge extra to select a seat in business class!

Short flight... 2 hours. I would prefer aisle, but window is fine. There are only 16 seats on this flight, 9 of which show reserved.



I don't care about the seat, and want to avoid paying their fee on principle.

But it then occurred to me that these clowns could overbook. If I haven't paid for a seat, and I most likely at being bumped?

I don't know BA, and I don't want to risk losing my seat over $35USD, or whatever it is they charge.

Anyone have any insight? Is BA like an Asian airline, where there is very little risk of being bumped? Or should I just shutup and pay the seat extortion fee to minimize risk of being bumped, or being pushed to the back of the plane?