Sometimes it pays to be persistent. I’d called QANTAS earlier in the week to request a seat with extra leg room because I’m very tall and have problems with my knees that makes it difficult to sit cramped up for long periods. I was told the best they could do was a back seat and they weren’t even sure if that had extra leg room. I asked again at checkin if there was a seat with extra leg room available and gave my pitiful story – the girl at the checkin counter was very nice and called downstairs to see if they could free up an emergency isle seat for me and they managed to find one. Should make the 13 hour flight a lot easier. I think the seat was really empty and was just being kept free until absolutely required but if you were told at the last minute that your seat with extra leg room was no longer available – sorry….