Originally Posted by windowontheAside

I would guess those are taken rather than blocked. Since you've managed to bag the emergency exit then your status must have been picked up.

You point out that last week you could get row 17, now first available is 19 - that suggests to me that some people are reserving seats. Most ET seats will tend to show as open because non-status pax generally don't pay for seat reservations. Status pax tend to favour seats towards the front of the cabin so those get snapped up first.

If you give flight numbers and dates we could check in more detail.