We've increasingly seen airlines try to boost ancillary revenue by charging for things that were previously free. Full service airlines like Emirates now charge for seat assignments in economy on select fares, and British Airways even charges for seat assignments in business class. Now we're seeing Swiss come up with a creative way to increase…
Continue reading: Swiss Will Begin Charging Extra To Assign Select Business Class Seats
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Ok, so no swiss for me anymore. Business class fare is not enough for you? ek/qr are happy to take my money
I fly Air Canada and all of their international business class seats are private in the most recent configurations. BTW, about those seat maps in the article - how do you know the throne seats are being "blocked?" Maybe paying customers have already selected them.
On two out of my three Swiss 777 business class flights up until now I got throne seats for free. And no, I'm not a HON Circle member.
@ Charlie - Paid and booked seats are marked with a blue seat, while blocked seats are marked with an X.
If Swiss had the best C class out there... but it is at most pretty average these days...
Tends to highlight that Swiss business class is not especially competitive.....since all-aisle access should be the expectation.....and it sounds like they are years away from that standard.
Swiss has very high Premium cabin loads. Their 777s have 62 business class seats, the most out of any long-haul 777 operator. They fill the cabin often an it is rarely below 90% capacity during peak seasons. As such, they tend to sell two different types of business class, "direct aisle access" and "2-2-2". (By the way, i know its five across 1-2-2, 2-2-1)
Swiss certainly thinks very highly of their product to make this move. It seems a bit foolish, considering that all aisle access has increasingly become the norm.
Those throne seats have horribly tight foot cubbies with very little space so this doesn't bother me in the slightest as having flown in one I'd never pick it again!
It's common to charge extra to secure better seats within most classes of service on many airlines. I don't see why this is anything out of the ordinary. Better stuff costs more, jeez.
I flew 2 segments last week on Swiss in the throne seats which I was able to change to at the check in desk. Yes they are more private but I find the hard product a bit dated, seat and leg space a bit narrow but I would probably pay up to $150 extra to reserve these seats at booking. By the way, business was 60% full and there were 2 available throne seats that nobody bothered to sit in!
A cheap move becoming of a cheap airline in monkey class. Yet business class isn't cheap.
Conflicted about this as well as it seems to "downgrade" business class. Up to know, its been all inclusive. I've always succeeded in booking "privacy" seats last minute. I think few people actually knew that these seats free up last minute (never mind the fact that there is always a good chance that a SEN or HON being bumped to first on check in).
On the A333, I actually prefer the individuals seats towards the aisle, the seats towards the windows feel cramped (I'm 6'2). On the 777 all the seats are much more private.
I have a trip planed next year with 4 long haul segments with SWISS. to upgrade to 4 privacy seats would cost about 1k, that seems a little ridiculous.
If you ask me they should just keep reserving a few for SENs and HONs and just stop letting award tickets from booking the seats.
I have 2 segments planned in the Swiss A330 in late November. I had selected the throne seats in February before this pay-to-select-seat plan went into effect. I checked my seat assignment and Swiss has assigned me seats randomly now. Do I have any recourse?
It's fast fast forward to 2020 February now. I was hoping to book LX from Hong kong to Vienna, as they fly their A340 on this route. As a krisflyer gold, it didn't allow me to book the throne seat, nor a few of their preferred single seat in forward cabin. To reserve a throne seat, I had to pay like €150 per sector, double that if I book for return! In addition, for unknown reasons, their website keeps crashing during booking process, so I gave up. Found a sweet deal with EVA air, I just fly TG to Bangkok to connect, easy peesy. Best part is, total price comes to about the same, and EVA gives pajamas, rimova toiletries, all seats with aisle access, beats LX any day!