The Spanish Iberia, a member of oneworld and owned by the parent company of British Airways, has introduced new seat selection fees that would make the chintziest of low cost carriers blush.
Now, British Airways is no slouch in the advance seat selection fee arena. BA charges even business class passengers who are neither elites nor traveling on a flexible ticket to select their seats prior to online check-in. An upcharge for business class passengers to choose their seats!
And many low cost carriers charge to choose an economy seat in advance. If you’re flying Spirit Air or Allegiant, and you want to pick you seat from the seatmap before check-in, it’s going to cost you. Of course, since it costs everyone else too and folks flying those carriers tend to be price sensitive many people do not book seats in advance, the seat map tends to be fairly open, and folks are able to do a decent job with seats at the airport at no cost.
But Iberia has taken it a step further — economy passengers are going to have to pay for seat assignments even at check-in if they want to express any preference at all. And that means, since Iberia won’t inherently be cheaper than alternative carriers, that it will be an airline to be avoided for those who aren’t exempt from the fees.
Iberia is in trouble. Spain is too of course. The airline has had union trouble and has hemorraged cash. It’s even cost parent company CEO Willie Walsh his bonus. So it’s not surprising that they’re looking at fees to generate revenue. The key here is that many customers booking Iberia tickets may not be aware of the policy. Certainly many booking through online travel agencies will be surprised.
So shout it from the rooftops, your friends without elite status buying coach fares might want to consider other airlines if price is otherwise the same.
How Much Are the Fees?
Iberia has a helpful table. Here’s the cost for a seat assignment, if your fare or status doesn’t exempt you from paying. I’ve highlighted the cost of an economy seat assignment.
It’s $40 in advance, $50 at on-line check-in, and $55 at the airport. The longer you wait to buy your seat assignment, the more expensive it gets.
Remember that this is the pricing in each direction, so advance seat assgnments for transatlantic coach flights on Iberia will run $80.
This isn’t charging for ‘premium seating’ like extra legroom. There are still some seats that are more expensive than this like exit row seat with additional legroom. This is charging for any seat assignment in advance at all.
What Happens If You Don’t Pay for a Seat Assignment?
With US low cost carriers, at the airport you can pretty much have whatever seat you wish that’s left over most of the time.
With Iberia, you’re going to get something assigned “at random” which I read to mean you’re going to get a middle seat in the back — even if something better is available.
If you don’t have any preferences and you haven’t chosen a seat prior to check-in, you will be assigned one for free and at random when you get your boarding pass.
Iberia wants to keep selling seat assignments, not just in advance and at check-in but even at the airport right before departure. So they need to incentivize you to pay. Waiting to assign a seat means you pay more if you want to pick your seats, and winding up with an inferior seat if you won’t pay.
Who Doesn’t Have to Pay for an Advance Seat Assignment?
Business class passengers get free advance seat assignments. In this way, since it applies to everyone flying business class, they’re actually more generous than British Airways.
The most expensive economy tickets come with free seat assignments in coach (exit rows are an upcharge). Frequent flyer award tickets come with free seat assignments as well.
oneworld Sapphire and Emerald elite members are also exempt from the fee — so an American Airlines Platinum and Executive Platinum should not be charged (though an American Gold member would be).
- You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
I’ve never flown Iberia but wow, this is a very low move…I hope I don’t have to deal with this airline…
I’ve never flown Iberia but wow, this is a very low move…I hope I don’t have to deal with this airline…
Idiots. I used to avoid IB like the plague already. I literally only ever flew it when I needed a second airline for a oneworld explorer award and it was the only option. This is just one more reason to avoid it.
What about if you have companions on the same locator? Do you all get random seats?
This is ridiculous and is a nightmare in the making. I can just see it now, hordes of economy pax, lined up at the gate, arguing with the agents. Families trying to sit together, seats being swapped / exchanged/ bartered, the planes unable to leave on time, delays….
Seriously an idiotic move. Just raise the fares across the board and be done with it!
I predict major trouble at the check-in counter and at the gate under this program unless the employees are permitted to use common sense to work around it.
What’s next, people buying and selling their randomly assigned seats once they get on the plane? And then Flight Attendants enforcing a ban on seat trading?
Every other airline that charges for assigned seats drops the charge 24 hours before flight time when on-line check-in begins. That’s probably where this scheme will end up.
I was planning to accumulate IB miles (er, Avios) for future travel in their excellent Business class, but this scheme reeks of desperation. I worry that the airline may shut down before I am able to fly them on an award ticket.
I totally agree with Kimmie, that was my first thought. I wonder if it might be better however to move my Avios over to Iberia and book Business flights so I can pick my seat without paying BA? Hmmm.
This is totally insulting. It’s not charging for an actual service or product that’s being “unbundled” as in an ADVANCE seat assignment. At the airport one is entitled to a seat. This is really offensive and is getting mighty close to charging for using the lavatory.
I don’t love the idea but i’m not outraged. If you don’t want to pay for a specific seat it makes sense to save aisles and windows for people who may pay later.
In this “game” the later you check in the better your odds that they have run out of middle seats.
@MyTravels, you have a point in theory, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I don’t think they would run out of middle seats before others if they will really sign available seats “at random” as they say. Will the extra revenue they get by people paying for seat assignments outweigh the revenue lost by people avoiding them altogether? Hard to say.
No fan of this, but Gary, what’s the viewpoint of “seat assigned at random” if Iberia programs it’s system to automatically assign “bad” seats (middle/back) when aisle/front is available in that they hope those will be purchased later. That doesn’t sound “random” to me. Someone would eventually sue. Dibs on lead plaintiff…
“Will the extra revenue they get by people paying for seat assignments outweigh the revenue lost by people avoiding them altogether?”
The former is easily measured. The latter is mostly guesswork, with the guessing being done by proponents of the new policy. We’ve seen this game play out many, many times in many industries. Management will stick to its plan until the market slaps them in the face, hard.
An insanely customer-unfriendly move. Unless they start offering those $200 transatlantic fares again (those were the days!) I can’t imagine buying an Iberia ticket under this policy. $80 just to choose a seat assignment? So a family of 4 would pay $320? No way. If I somehow was confronted by this choice, I’d take my chances on the random assignment. But I’m sure it would make me unhappy.
We just got back from England. Our return flight from LHR to JFK was on BA. We were on an award flight in Business and had already paid $582 each in taxes & fees. They wanted another $105 each to select our seats! I was outraged about that. I waited until 24 hours before the flight and selected our seats without charge at that time.
I hear that Iberia’s next fee will be a fee for NOT kicking you in the crotch at the check-in counter. If you don’t pay the fee you deserve what you get 🙂
British is a significant drag on the value of OneWorld membership with their outrageous fees. I guess it’s only logical they would take similar action at Iberia.
I recently flew WizzAir, a cut-throat European LCC. They upcharge for a couple of the front rows (can’t remember what the’re good for other than getting off the plane faster). It’s advertised everywhere, but the real kicker is that you can still pay for the “upgrade” on board, the purser will be happy to take your money! There is a big sign right on the overhead storage bin.
Picking your seat? Ewwwwww
This is BS I just found out about the fees for seat assignment. I have been traveling with IBERIA for the past 6 years and I was furious when I was told that in order to seat with my 8 year old son I would have to pay $40 dollars for each of us and both ways, a mere $160 more. I will take my chances. I am not requesting a specific seat but only to be seated with my son. I will try to get them 24 hours prior. This is the last time I will travel with this airline. This is a pretty lame, greedy and stupid move from IB
This is outrageous! I had no idea this new policy was in place when we bought our flight tickets for our family of four. Round trip USA to Spain. I could not reserve seats online so I called Iberia and they informed me we would have to pay a total of $320 ($160 each way) just to make sure I can sit next to my four year ol and my two year old daughters and my wife!!!
I have alaways traveled with Ibearia being that I’m Spaniard. No more, this is actually insulting.
Random assignment?? On the hugest A340-600 when the seating was wide open I was assigned 49C – the very last seat at the back. Next to the WC. No recline. for a 13 hour flight! And *any* other seat would be 30€. So I bite the bullet and select another seat for 30€ and the website has a “synch failure” and then checked me in at 49C without my confirmation. Couldn’t go back and change it. We’ll see what happens at the airport . . .
So – Perhaps everyone is assigned 49C and they all feel compelled to change it.
totally surprised about this…travel agent did not inform us of this either …fortunately we checked and di pay up…and will not be shuffled around by Iberia but this is just a disgusting move….on the website you would not really see this “policy” unless like me you already knew to look for it…..very surreptitious….I didn’t like Iberia before but like it even less now… will always try to avoid!
I discovered this new policy before booking my last tickets. I was so dismayed by the policy that I cancelled my purchase and flew another airline instead.
They lost MY MONEY on this new policy.
what a stupid move i didnt know about this before i bought my ticket at orbitz.com .. the good thing orbitz can change my flight with the same names so im cancelling this flight and avoid IBeria now and looking for good deal with another airlines NO MORE IBERIA
the problem you don’t know about it till you book your ticket and ready to confirm then they surprise you
Am oneworld emerald. 200,000 miles a year.
I live in spain half the year
Iberia Put my Financee somewhere on the other side of the plane without out recourse.
Greed and stupidy has always been the hallmark of Iberia. But it was at least tolerable. Now, goodbye forever
Bye Iberia. We will not miss you
I was routed to the airline to book after a Skyskanner search turned up the Iberia flights from CVG to Jordan and back from Morocco with overnight layover in Madrid for return flight. Not exactly a bargain fare, but better than alternatives on other airlines. However, another airline would have been cheaper had the seat selection fees been added onto the fare! So the flights were sold to me under false pretenses when comparing my options! Also, in choosing which economy fare to book, I chose regular vs basic economy for the outflight, as the comparison of the two did say seat selection would be extra for basic economy (that was the only advantage) and the price difference seemed worth it since seat selection was “up to $40” (though that was implied to be FOR THE ENTIRE FLIGHT EACH WAY, NOT PER LEG OF THE 3-LEGGED TRIP!). I did choose basic economy for the return trip as the price difference was greater, so I was willing to pay an extra $40 for each ticket for seat selecton. Much to my surprise, in managing my booking, a fee of $18-$37 was being charged for EACH LEG of the trip, on both the outgoing and incoming flights, for regular seats (exit rows are even higher)! The only seats I was able to reserve for free are for the short ORD-CVG flight on AA, but NOT the AA flight out, from CVG-MIA. Seat selection is not even available at a price for that flight. I called Iberia to complain, in hopes they would assign seats for me. When the agent tried to do that for the MIA-MAD flight, the charge was $37 and she apparently couldn’t waive the charge though she admitted I had booked an economy flight, not basic economy, and that the only difference between the two is (supposedly) seat selection, which I was being denied! I asked for a supervisor to call me back last night, which of course never happened, I have now been on hold with them for 20 minutes, no msgs stating how long the hold time is, or anything. Now, in going to Manage My Booking, I see that the entire trip, all 3 legs, outgoing (the one I paid more for, for Economy rather than Basic Economy) now mysteriously says “seat selection unavailable”!! That happened since last night, so now there isn’t even an option to pay for them! For the return trip (which I’d booked at Basic Economy, so DID expect to pay for seat selection, but only up to $40 for the entire trip, not 3 separate fees–well, for some reason the short AA flight was reservable for no fee, so it is the 2 Iberia flights now–of up to $37 each!!). There seems to be no resolution to my complaint, I would have booked the Basic Economy flights the entire way, rather than a higher fare that was described as including seat selection, had I known. Or chosen a different airline, entirely, at a somewhat higher fare!! Presenting these fares side by side in search engines for comparison with higher fares that include seat selection, without an upfront disclosure, is highly deceptive! Does anyone here have any suggestions for possible recourse? And I am STILL on hold, wondering now whether my number has been coded to never get a response! It is just dead silence, no music, no “continue to hold” or “leave number for callback” messages, NOTHING! I believe my booking, which was confirmed (before I knew about these outrageous extra fees) is nonrefundable, or at least with heavy penalty for refunds + I have already booked an airbnb in Madrid for the overnight layover there.
I purchased a great new way SFO BCN with Iberia LEVEl for a Trans Atlantic Cruise for $280 Optimal Fare with seats,meal and luggage via Iberia.com for my Father and I.
We got row 5JK on the A330 window aisle so it was only $80 more than Basic but totally worth it to be seated in the mini Y cabin of only 3 rows.