On SAS this has become an issue without offering more pitch for premium passengers intra-europe where the difference is food and drink. A typical MD-80 will have 4 rows of business and rows 5-14 as Economy Extra. On a recent flight there were 5-6 of us in 9 rows of Eco Extra while regular economy was quite full with only a handful of empty seats. But when regular economy fills up the eco extra cabin gets compressed to only a few rows. The extreme is one single empty row that I observed on BUD-CPH, which is presumably mostly a leisure route.

I suppose it it reasonable that the premium passengers get the extra space. However, on SAS elite status will not get you into the Eco Extra zone. Only a full fare ticket. You can in theory pay $600-$700 for ARN-LHR and still not get into the Eco Extra zone. The practice of denying water and guaranteeing sardine seating for pax who pay decent money is what is infurating.

UA's model is a bit more reasonable even though M fares can be quite expensive in some markets. In the winter season you can get M fares in the $600 range for IAD-LHR, which is not unreasonable.