So much has been said but here’s my thoughts:

if you book a flight late in the game you are often only given this choice: either pay for this or that seat selection or let the gate agent give you one for free when you show up.

It forces you to pay. And if you risk just waiting for a gate agent to give you one, this will not always play iut because if there’s an oversold situation or an aircraft change, guess who they boot? The guy w onseat assignment.

What gets me is that if you pay for a ticket to something it should automatically come with and include a freakin seat!

who the heck invented the idea that it somehow does not or that you now have to pay extra for that same ticket? We need to find this first person and hang them up Benito Mussolini style! (And the person who made it so once you join apple family sharing you cant undo it, and the person who made it so you can only share a link in facebook to people with facebook and can’t ever copy it out to share to other people with any ease)

look, I paid the airline for a darn ticket. It should let me pick and seat and be done. And they should all be the same.

It looks petty and cheesy to do fees
i hate fees

fees make people ansty and upset. People do the “ok fine whatever I’ll pay it but in protest!” And then they carry that internal frustration when they fly.

upset fliers make it harder on the staff
this is why there’s all these reported incidents of FAs kicking people off planes

if airlines want nice happy calm passengers that comply with rules, make the fees go away and just become part of the overall price! Stop dogging everyone!

think about anything you buy in life. Do you want just a one price or do you want to be roped in and then have to keep paying hidden fees? Which ride you wanna be on?

come on! Enough.

How would someone “boycott” or refuse to pay a fee and still get booked on a flight? I don’t think more than a handful of frequent flyers would, in protest, only book their flight at the basic economy fare. Or is the proposal that, whatever fare class you choose to fly, you don’t choose a seat that has a fee associated with it?

With certain fares and certain membership levels, you can have any seat you want, so if you’re of the “privileged” class, there’s really no way to boycott. The way the industry works these days, what one airline does, the others do. If, for example, a large number of people stopped flying on United and booked on another airline (and paid the seat fees there as long as they’re willing), perhaps United might take to the suggestion that “I’d fly with you if I didn’t have to pay extra for an aisle seat” and the rest of the airlines would follow. But for many, I feel that giving up their privileges on one airline for a possible greater good might be too much of an obstacle.

I’m only a peon, so the only way I get an exit row seat nowadays is on Southwest when I check in early enough to get a good place in line. I remember the Goode Olde Days when I was able to reserve any available seat in the cabin that I paid for, but a lot has changed since then. For what it's worth, on my last round trip on American (DCA-MCO), I looked at the seat map, found that nearly all of the available seats were in the center except for an exit row seat at a $59 premium (the Basic Economy fare was about $100), I took the cheap option and was pleasantly surprised that I indeed got a seat assignment when I booked the flight. Sure, it was a center seat within a row of the bathroom, but I anticipated not getting a seat assignment until I got to the gate. Small consolation, significant saving. If this was a 5-6 hour flight rather than a 2-1/4 hour flight I might have opted for a 'paid for' seat.

I'm not a Luddite, just a cheapskate.

How would someone “boycott” or refuse to pay a fee and still get booked on a flight? I don’t think more than a handful of frequent flyers would, in protest, only book their flight at the basic economy fare. Or is the proposal that, whatever fare class you choose to fly, you don’t choose a seat that has a fee associated with it?

With certain fares and certain membership levels, you can have any seat you want, so if you’re of the “privileged” class, there’s really no way to boycott. The way the industry works these days, what one airline does, the others do. If, for example, a large number of people stopped flying on United and booked on another airline (and paid the seat fees there as long as they’re willing), perhaps United might take to the suggestion that “I’d fly with you if I didn’t have to pay extra for an aisle seat” and the rest of the airlines would follow. But for many, I feel that giving up their privileges on one airline for a possible greater good might be too much of an obstacle.

Well I guess that they can charge for these if they're upfront about it. But UA basically threatens the passenger and tries to convince them not to use the fare. I'm a Million miler w/UA and find this disgusting. Here's my message to UA:
Your sales tactics for basic economy are both ridiculous and threatening. Other low-cost airlines, such as Southwest Airlines, give two free bags and other amenities, particularly treating customers like human beings. I think that United airlines are idiots for how they market their basic economy ticket. I have taken American and Delta on the same fare and they are much more amenable. Since I am a Premier gold passenger with United, I don’t have to worry about some of these Draconian features; If you really don’t want passengers to use this why don’t you simply eliminate it and become competitive with other airlines?

It's all part of inventory control. I believe we are talking coach. The airlines sell cheap seats via third parties to get “key money.” I’m guessing they make money off the full fare class seats purchased by businesses and last minute travelers. If someone pays full fare and gets a non reclining seat next to the bathroom, you can bet they won’t be happy, especially if they find out the good seats went to people paying half the price. Perhaps a less obvious method would be to restrict pre-selection to less desirable areas based on category (e.g. United’s Y,B,M,H,K,L,Q,V,W,U,T,S fares). S would be restricted to pre-selecting seats next to the bathroom.

Personally, with the hassle of flying, I figure if I can drive there in 8 hours or less + drive time to destination from the airport, I’m much happier driving. That’s the ultimate boycott.

Isn’t the “seat assignment after check-in something that DL does for “basic economy” passengers on some international routes at least? That may create a rather interesting mess at close to boarding time, especially when there are lots of young kids traveling with fewer parents than there are young kids on the flight.