As in individual who is 6’5” tall, and can’t actually fit in a normal seat, I used to select the exit row on booking. Now it’s $30 for the privilege of not having my knees in the back of the pax in front of me for the whole flight. I complained to Qantas in both email and phone form, and told that someone would get back to me (still waiting...) and the phone people said there was nothing they could do, and they would escalate it to a complaints section who would ... get back to me (still waiting). I am able to do anything about my height as I would my eye color, and with airlines making seats closer together and the average height of the population growing, I’m sure this problem will only get worse.
And talk of razor thin margins are b@lls... QF is currently looking down the barrel of a record 1.55 BILLION PROFIT.