Charging for "premium" J seats - is this a new thing?
 

My SWU just cleared for a DFW-NRT flight. There are still quite a few seats available in J. However, it appears the isle seats have a $14 extra fee associated with them. However, I'm unable to select them still.

Is this something new?

If it is it is not good news. SWU or no SWU, I don't feel as though you should have to pay for a seat allocation in J.

Have you called the web services folks to find out if the selection issues are web-related or real? (I'm guessing not or we wouldn't have a new thread on this without that information, but it's always worth asking if the obvious has been tried :D)

(And, btw, they're aisle seats...unless they're on an island :))

Cheers.

Have quite a few international trips coming up in J (including NRT). I am just now able to change my seats to whatever seats, including aisle, I want in J without a charge.

I'd pay $14 for a seat on an isle.
Well, depending on which isle, of course.

It says you get free seat selection as a OW member however so you shouldn't be charged this.

It's incomprehensible to me that someone could pay the thousands of dollar differential to fly J instead of Y, yet be unwilling to cough up another $14 for the seat of their choice. And even upgraders, whether by SWU or miles + copay, $14 seems trivial for such a long flight.

Elba?

It's incomprehensible that an airline would sink so low as to charge for seat assignments in a premium cabin that a customer has paid thousands of dollars for.

You mean like BA? I suppose they could be incomprehensible. ;)

BA does this....and I avoid BA.

Yet that is exactly what BA did some months ago, looks like AA is following them at last ...

I would hope that the problem the OP reported is just a mistake though as I'd expect an EXP to be exempt in the same was as they are in the BA system.

Do we have any confirmation that this is anything other than a tech glitch?

Wow, BA really charges people on paid J for seat assignments? How much?

While it's not entirely incomprehensible to me that they would do such a thing, I would hope they'd be charging a lot more than $14. Otherwise it hardly seems worth the annoyance factor.

$32 for a seat assignment in Club Europe for a short hop (LHR-OSL) for my wife who is AA GLD on a transatlantic first-class award.

(It's even more frustrating for us because I booked the tickets for the two of us in the same PNR and for some unspecified reason AA split PNRs when reissuing the ticket following a sched change, so now I get a free seat and my wife is waiting for check-in to get an assignment without paying).