This is happening earlier than January. My 737-800 flights on November 25, November 30, December 1 and December 3 already show Rows 16/17 B/E seats available. My October flights still have me in Row 17. In fact, I always reserved 17A or 17C - in all of these flights starting in November, I just checked my seat assignments and they changed them! I have been assigned to either 7A or 7C now and cannot change it to another MCE seat as I am Ruby and will get charged (even though they re-assigned me to MCE in bulkhead).