These things happen. I'm going to presume that the whole cabin is paid F if you've got 4F, your friends have 4 and that leaves only 2 others. If it's not you, some other flight segment has a problem.

That is about as long a domestic flight as there is, so F vs. Y will make a real difference. I would take the customer service gesture and look at any one of the connections via LAX, DFW or ORD, even into MIA on AS/AA. You will have travel credits of $1,200 and can then spend a bit on an Uber SUV up to the cruise in FLL. Maybe even an extra day in MIA/FLL.

If you take the deal offered and suffer in steerage, the cash refund component will be to the original form of payment.