American Airlines adds another fee!

[Hatu]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- American Airlines has discovered a new way to charge passengers for something they used to get for free: sitting near the front of the plane.

On Wednesday, American Airlines, owned by AMR Corp (AMR, Fortune 500)., unveiled its "express seat" offer, which allows passengers to pay extra to sit in the first few rows of coach.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/18/news/companies/american_airline_fees/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

 

[PHL]

USAirways has been doing this for a while now, among many other 'fee' based perks. In fact, it was all these add-on fees for things like luggage, seating, etc. that kept them in the black. I guess AA is just playing catch up so they don't have another quarter in the red. I didn't read the details, but I presume these fees won't apply to elites.

 

[eolesen]

Nice spin, but it's not paying for something that customers were getting for free yesterday. Prime seats (front, exit rows) have never (in the past ten years at least) been available to select for the average Joe the Plumber. They've been V blocked for elites and full fares.

This just allows the bottom feeder fare buyers to pay-up for the same privilege elites already get.

And, it further devalues elite status.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< ------- And pushs non-rev's to the back of the bus!!!

 

[paul1]

<_< ------- And pushs non-rev's to the back of the bus!!!

if you can even get a seat gl

 

[FrequentFlierCA]

Exactly. Simple solution here is if you don't want to pay the fee, you don't have to. Sit farther back.

And eolesen, how does it devalue elite status? If I remember the program details correctly he unwashed masses can't select one of these seats until check-in, so if you're elite (and buying your ticket more than 24 hours in advance) you won't have any extra competition for these seats. Did I miss something?