Re: QF selling more "extra legroom" Y seats - 80A/K,71D & Dom. Exit
I agree that OWE is the truly valuable aspect of WP. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of recognition given by both Finnair and Iberia when I was in Europe.
Both airlines prominently advertised their priority check in and other services as available to One World frequent flyers.
However, access to exit row seats was the main reason I preferred flying QF rather than VA in economy on domestic flights.
Now that has gone, it's tempting to fly VA and take their usual automatic allocation of row 3 on B737s and row 10 on A330s.
Row 3 on the VA B737s actually has a lot of extra legroom compared to the comparable first row of economy on the same QF aircraft.
Benefits which are available to high status frequent flyers are not "free", they are paid for by the money we spend to earn that status.
It is MUCH "fairer" to allocate the more desirable seats to loyal long term high value frequent flyers, who spend tens of thousands each year, rather than anyone who stumps up $60 for one flight.
I also agree that more and more benefits are available to the tiny minority of P1 members. Having earned over 2400 status credits last year it would be nice to see some benefits kick in at that level, rather than the small one-off incentives which are currently offered.