My wife and I fly AA NRSA a lot (one of our kids is a captain). I find that most agents are very friendly and pleasant, but they do observe the non-rev rules very strictly, which they should. Occasionally you run into a stinker, but that happens once in a while in any aspect of life.

When we fly non-rev, we list for first routinely, and we're always very grateful when we get it. But when we don't, I don't recall any time when we've been given an exit row of any kind, or any other special treatment in coach. Been doing this for about 10 years, so we've got a lot of experience in this.

As others have said, I think there are a zillion reasons why this seat swap might have happened, and not all of them are nefarious.