Recognition for OWE in Y has gone down over the years.

Back in the day (2010/2011), the crew would have given a handwritten card + choice of meal.

These days you normally only get a greeting + possible bottle of water, which is all fine and good for short/medium haul Y as I find the biggest benefit is having the bottle of water to hydrate instead of having to get the crew to topup your cup of water ever so often.

The person who recognises your status is typically the ISM and SP but they are normally in the forward cabins so dont think the working level BC / FP pay much attention to you during the flight (though sometimes I have seen them with those post-it notes on the card recognising DM/GO and possibly OWE but have not seen a discernable difference in service).

​​​​​​In J cabin it is different - if you get the greeting, I find they normally pay more attention to you in flight.

Not sure how it will be as a DM in the J cabins.

The other day in Y on KA, I got a greeting from the FP who introduced herself as the section leader. That was a first.