Qantas is now letting passengers reserve exit row seats for a fee.

This week Qantas announced it will be extending its extra legroom prepaid seating option to passengers travelling on all Qantas domestic B737 and A330 flights.

This option was already available on Qantas’ domestic east-west services and international medium and long haul flights.

An “extra legroom” seat in economy is located in an exit row. An exit row seat will usually give you an extra three inches’ legroom. It will cost you between $20 and $60 to reserve yourself the roomier exit row spot, depending on the length of the flight. And you also must declare you are capable of handling exit row duties in an emergency.

The airline also announced it will soon be adding this option to lock in more space on short-haul trans-Tasman international flights, for a fee of $25.

Previously, these seats on domestic or short-haul flights were allocated on a “first in, best dressed” basis.

Guarantee extra legroom by reserving an exit row seat.Source:istock

“Making our ‘extra legroom’ option available to more customers across our network

facilitates a fairer seat selection process, with the allocation of seats which have additional

legroom space better reflecting the fee paid. This is the same basic principle that applies in the rest of the aircraft,” Qantas executive manager of sales and distribution, Vanessa Hudson said of the announcement.

“The option has been popular with our customers on longer domestic and international

routes, and it now means customers can guarantee their preference of a seat with additional

legroom on domestic and short-haul international flights.”

This announcement brings Qantas in line with other Aussie carrier Virgin Australia where guests have already been able to reserve exit row seats for a fee.

When flying domestically or on a short-haul international flight, Virgin passengers can reserve extra legroom for $20-$70. For long-haul international flights, these seats can be purchased for $150.