If that is all it takes to "transform" the experience, VA Economy travel must be ****e
What happens if the unlikely occurs and none of them do? Is one randomly chosen to be "downgraded" and a random AB pax "upgraded"?

What the ??? Pure spin, nothing else.

The only thing from the above list that you could reliably expect, from a practical point of view, is the legroom.

“Transform” is another one of these words that gets overused/abused by marketers, CEOs and spin doctors. Seems unlikely the whole xperience is radically changed just because you get a seat that someone else locks upright for critical flight phases.

Geez, you blokes mustn't have traveled much overseas. It's common to charge for the exit rows on most airlines overseas. If no one pays, they are empty. If you haven't paid, you don't get to sit in them. It's all very simple.

For me, whenever I can, I buy. I love the extra legroom...and I'm happy to pay for the privilege.

So you like flying with a seat with:

• rigid arm rest / seat dividers
• no recline
• no drop down tray
• probably no IFE screen
• no seat back pocket for documents, books, etc.
• no bags under the seat in front

Very poor assumption. Until my retirement two years ago I was doing 500+ hrs / year as SLF on all continents except South America and the Antarctic.

Not my observation at all. Common? Yes, possibly. Most airlines? Definitely not.

However I do think that we probably need to differentiate between the over-wing emergency exits in the narrow-bodies and the "near the door" seats on wide-bodies, for which no user restrictions seem to apply.
I can see some value in those seats and might burn a few points to use one.

But the restrictions associated with being seated in the narrow-body, over-wing exits is a different kettle of fish.

Oh, and I last flew in one of those seats nine days ago. My allocated seat, not my choice and not selected. No additional cost. And no pretense that it any way represented a premium service.

Originally Posted by peuce View Post
It's common to charge for the exit rows on most airlines overseas......

Sure it's common, for Air Asia.

Virgin Australia wants to be Air Asia ?

They sure as hell are working hard at it.

I don’t care about the seat dividers. I don’t care about the recline though some cabin crew will unlock the recline in flight anyway. In my experience there are drop down trays and a seat back pocket and an IFE screen (B737 overwing exit rows.) I like to put my legs under the seat in front, not bags.

That said, I don’t pay for exit rows, but normally I don’t pay to fly anyway and when I do pay, I have other considerations such as getting a row with a bassinet. My biggest priority when traveling by myself is to have a seat with no one next to me.

And you are guaranteed to be last to disembark being exactly half way between the forward and rear doors