The cascade problem is pretty bad on some routes. You book and waitlist A, waitlist D and carry confirmed Y. You get Y. I was booked in A and was happy enough with Y on a 3 hour as I needed the flight at any cabin. When my flight was delayed by 4 hours, I was rebooked by QF into the J cabin as seats were available on the new connection.

Gate agent saw that I was Y confirmed and printed, ripped up my business class boarding card and resissued me with a Y. I waved the rules, I showed her the fare basis on the receipt. "complain tomorrow to the downtown office." I was about to get on a flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago. I had already missed my meeting in Santiago with the delay. At 0700 the next day I was taking the flight from Santiago to LGW via Brazil. I did not exactly have the time, inclination or ability to pop to downtown Buenos Aires and complain.

I have done a lot of DONE equivalents and only got a single long haul sector in D. Go for 5 continents and twice a month in Y and you get tired.

The tools on this site and the experiences of others have helped me to get the seats more often now. The worst is when Y is fairly open and you don't get 3 seats together so you can sleep, even when on A