lucky to get away with that. trains and planes need a real person for each ticket for the ticket to be valid. for example one person buys two tickets for the same flight - you only get one seat.
bit much to say "treated badly" - you had to explain the situation as everyone could see the empty seat. what you'd expect?
Do an FT search for performancefitness (I think that's the handle).
They were even successful in filing claims to receive FF credit for each seat they purchased. I believe it was 4 to 5 seats at once (basically the middle section of Y on a 777).