I understand that, but I was only confirmed in coach, not first class, by the rationale being discussed here I probably should not have been cleared into first class (there were plenty of coach seats available). I'm sure whoever was #1 on the list felt they were shenaniganed in favor of me.

As widgets says, there are lots of situations and I was never under the impression that the typical order of operation was dictated by hard and fast rules, rather it's just the way it's usually done and just because a gate agent did it in another order does not mean the gate agent violated rules or policy, they just did it differently.