I am in the middle of a sequence of 5 Club World round trips in 8 weeks and a handful of CE and ET hops too. These have typically been booked 2/3 weeks out and have been to either HKG or BOM travelling at the start and end of the week. CE/ET has been Germany, Jersey and Greece.

On longhaul I have got the seats I want (i.e. 62K, 64K) on 6 of the 10 sectors. On another 3 sectors I have had an acceptable substitute (14AK) and on 1 upcoming sector have been stiched up with 12J (only that and middles left). Prevously I would have scored 62K at OLCI 90%+ of the time, so compared to the old system I have had less luck getting the best seats, but have been able to get an acceptable substitute most of the time. On one flight have I ended up with a worse option. On that basis, I would rate the system as OK, though I have not yet had to make a last minute change which might well see me rather more disappointed.

On shorthaul things have perked up. I've been able to get row 1 or 2 consistently in CE and have been able to secure a decent aisle in ET before moving to the front row at OLCI.

Im summary, not as bad as I had feared but the lack of seats held back for last minute changes i.e. T-48 is going to upset me at some point. In fact my only disappointment has been the missus being kicked out of 1A on redemption. Thankfully OLCI fixed that.

P.S It would be great if we could avoid this turning into a rant-a-thon!