This is the second time this is happening to me!!

Flying TLV-MAD-NYC-MAD-TLV in Business Class - booked online, confirmed all sectors, paid, got e-ticket, end of story - right?..... WRONG!

Go into 'Manage My Reservation' to assign myself some seats... TLV-MAD - Done, MAD-NYC - Done, NYC-MAD - Done, MAD-TLV.... there are no seats to select (All are Occupied)!

I call up IB Service center to ask if there is a problem... they say

"There is no problem sir... you are confirmed in Business Class... accept that there is no seat available for you as ALL the seats are taken"

to which i reply,

"Are you saying that you've overbooked the cabin and therefore that's why i'm unable to select a seat?"....

to which they reply..."

"There is no problem sir... you are confirmed in Business Class... accept that there is no seat available for you as ALL the seats are taken and when you get to the airport in MAD on your return leg they will be able to help you"

As you might have noticed from my opening sentence - this happened to me once before except on the TLV-MAD outbound leg (was confirmed in Business Class to NY and back but could not select a seat on that particular leg) - low and behold on arrival to the airport (as obviously they would not let me check-in online) i was 'downgraded'!

Suggestions?

*** UPDATE ***

Thank You BA Executive Club!!! - After having so many issues with 'Customer Service Reps' at Iberia, BAEC in TLV said they would speak to Iberia directly for me to see what they can do. She told me they asked IB to go through all PAX on that particular flight in business (A319 - not sure if they'd do the same on an A346!) and see if any NON-Ticketed pax were holding seats (i.e. under Reservations) - it was confirmed that one PAX was indeed holding a seat without being ticketed and therefore they were able to release the seat for me (Ticketed). It just shows that you do need to persevere even when you might be told 'NO' to a legitimate request.