On the outbound, I had a seating mix-up. My pre-reserved seat was gone for some reason. I was too distracted to look at the seat number on boarding pass - since there was a picture of a cat on the boarding pass
When I got onboard, I realized my window seat became a middle seat in RL. So, I had a brief experience in the center. I found I could talk to my neighbor leaning forward a little. That seems to be the main question people ask.
They found a seat in the 2nd RL cabin - in row 8. I would recommend against that row. The problem is not so much the galley but the FA's opening and closing the closet right in front of the seat throughout the flight. The clicking sound and light that gets turned on when the closet opens is annoying.
On the return, I was able to get exit row in economy. Apparently, exit rows are only assigned at the airport to people who ask. In the economy cabin, there are 2 exit rows: 45 and 60.
The following applies to the 77N, it seems the space is reduced for the 77A for at least row 60.
45 is the first row of Y. The upsides are:
1 - window seat has very little intrusion of the emergency exit slide
2 - more front of the cabin
3 - lavs near the row belong to the Elite cabin so there is a curtain
4 - there is no galley
the downsides are:
1 - no window
2 - people from the Elite cabin and FAs would open the curtain and it can be annoying if you are in the aisle seat
3 - there is a passage way between the two sides of the airplane. The light in the passage way STAYS ON the entire flight. Eyeshades are needed to sleep
4 - it gets really cold
5 - FAs use that passage way to park their meal and duty-free carts (used to serve the Elite cabin) - it actually interferes with the aisle seat
So, it seems to me, for row 45, the better deal would be the window seats.
Row 60 seems to be a better deal. The down side is it is further back.... The emergency exit chute sticks out a lot more but the row is set a lot more back from the door. So, unless one is really tall (like 6'6"), it should not interfere with the window passenger. There is a window.
Row 60 is by the galley and lav. However, the galley seems to be lights out completely during the overnight flight - the one in the back of the plane is used. There is a decent amount of space so I don't think the lav traffic would be too annoying.