You have it exactly right. When I booked the flights, I chose 17DE. I checked my flights a couple of months later, and we are now in Row 8 or some such, and on the side it says I now owe $118 (or close to that) because we are now in Premium seats. I had NOT checked, ever, "upgrade to Premium". The aircraft did not change. the rows 16 and 17 are still exit rows, now occupied by other people, not us. Our only choice (as told to us by reservations when I called 3 wks ago) were to move to regular seats, or pay the $118. No free upgrade because we are Gold, no explanation as to why we were taken out of 17. None.

This is word for word exactly what happened. In the other thread someone gave me the link to which I sent every detail of this and another flight (that one was a little different, but still troubleing) - it was an old Virgin plane, sorry I don't know the numbers, so we picked the exit rows on that, and AT THE TIME OF RESERVATION no additional money was mentioned owed. It was after that (I believe after the June 1 date when things changed) that I looked at my reservation, and while we were still in the Virgin exit row (8 or 9, can't remember) it said that we owed whatever the amount was. I called and challenged that and was told "Yes, you must pay for those seats".

There are no other details, I'm not holding anything back. This is exactly what happened.