It's not about the 8 euros for me. I really enjoy Aegean because they treat their *G's well. I look forward to every Aegean flight due to the great customer service, catering, on-board experience etc. I wouldn't say this about any other regional flights.

The seat charge is one step closer to making their *G's no more special than other airlines.

I don't actually buy into this 'only €8' argument anyway, because that will only give you 'Up Front' seats and they really aren't important to me. I'd much rather have the 'Extra Legroom' seat because I like to stretch my legs. On that basis, the €8 that irishguy28 is quoting is completely irrelevant. Now to get the seats I normally sit in, just on my current bookings alone I'd have to pay a whacking €132. Sorry Aegean....not a chance!

I have wondered the same thing. However, at least for myself, its also a matter of showing that you appreciate your frequent flyers.

When we know already that they are going to have to give away a large portion of these seats for free, why can't they offer these for free to their loyal customers? It would be a minimal investment and show that they appreciate their best customers.

The same applied to KLM when they did something similar with EC. Difference is that with KLM the top tier does get these seats for free - showing that they do value the loyalty.

I decided to have a look at Lufthansa's charges for seat selection, and A3 is not entirely out of whack with what, presumably, is the most prevalent version of a European Star Alliance seat-paying regime.

Neither HON Circle nor Sentaors receive any discount on short and medium haul seats. (The fees can only be avoided entirely by booking a Flex or Classic fare). Even standard seats are chargeable, for SEN and HON CIRC if purchased as a Light fare. [Note that they also seemingly charge everyone on European feeder flights to any longhaul flight - even if that longhaul flight is in First or Business, and regardless of status!!! :o]

https://www.lufthansa.com/de/en/seat...-economy-class

That said, if there are other Star Alliance options that give you an extra legroom seat for free, then by all means, book them! The demand for such seats will probably surge, leading those operators to reconsider this lost revenue-generating possibility...

A3 should probably reconsider charging seat selection fees for Economy Flex passengers, though...

Given that I can't find any mention of paid seat selection for Croatia Airlines or Adria, I assume these are the last two European *A members that don't charge at all for seat selection. All the others do, with differing schemes - though none extend any exemption or discount offered to their own status members to passengers holding status in any other FFP.

Though LH and LX would give you preferred seats for free when checking in if these haven't been prebooked/sold. Even as A3*G

I am pretty sure that Aegean will, too. Despite what a phone agent is reported as having stated up thread.

It woudl be unfeasible to levy a charge on a last-minute checkin passenger when there are no free standard seats available to assign to them.

Out of curiosity I just did a dummy booking for VIE-ATH on the 12th FEB (date of introduction) and there don't seem to be many takers! :D
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...dbd3f1b85e.jpg

On the flip side thats great for anyone that does decide to pay ;).

Aegean now appears to be behaving very unfairly with seat bookings made before the cut-off date. I have checked several bookings and found that they have unilaterally moved me to standard seats - for example, on Feb 25th, I had seat 3A booked from LCA to ATH but it was changed to 12A with no notification. On talking to Aegean, they informed me that business class had been moved back to row 4 and the computer had therefore allocated me 12A. They were not allowed now to rebook me into vacant upfront seat 5A unless I paid the new fee. This is wholly shabby behaviour and Aegean will lose a lot of custom from formerly loyal passengers like me.

I don't think anyone is surprised by Lufthansa!

As far as I know, and it has certainly been the case the last couple of times I booked a cheapo SK fare, seat selection is for free for *G members on SAS on both shorthaul and longhaul. I usually get the bulkhold seat on TATL flights!

There are a few on the outbound, though!
Only 1 of the free seats is selected, but 11 paid seats are selected.

That must be all those rich Greeks :D

Seriously though, do we actually know that any of those paid for the seats? I think some people here have reported that they kept previously selected seats that were made before this change. We will see.

Why use LH as the yardstick of reference? They're the meanest airline in *A. Once you use the likes of LH and BA as comparisons you may as well give up, since all you have is a dismal race to the bottom.

Well, I have now confirmed that this is still true for SAS, at least for A3*G.

I have two forthcoming trips, booked via a third party, and for which I laterlly tried to get the agent to add the numbers. They said they did, but I could see no evidence of that when consulting the bookigns ont he SK website, who wanted to charge €15 for any seat.

I just rang SAS, had my number associated with both bookings, and can now select all seats for free. (Despite the website implying only Euro Bonus members being able to select seats for free).

Thanks for spurring me to contact SAS to sort that out!!!

Glad to help. I usually do it via their webchat, it's completely free :D

Anyway, I thought you said upthread that all seats are the same and you can't understand why people make a fuss about it!!!!