What's an OP? Yes, paying $20 for something I never paid for before, didn't even know about it except for exit row, which is understandable - if you are tall the economy seating would be torture. Before, I just picked the seat when I booked, always. I usually book months in advance, so that might be why I never knew about this. I just thought that Qantas had suddenly changed the rules to gouge more money out of people for no real reason, I suppose. Anyway, I have read all the comments, and I suppose I am just not as diligent as I used to be when booking airfares; things have changed a lot recently..... it is probably the beginning of the end of the era of mass air-travel, another 20 years and there will be a lot of unused mega-airports around the world I expect.