Originally Posted by
seenitall
I do not know which of the pax in this situation had the latest (i.e., most correct) BP. Giving the BP to the FA can only be for the purpose of demonstrating that your claim to the seat is not ridiculous. It is not a demonstration that your claim to the seat is correct.
Exactly; having a boarding pass showing your seat is pretty good evidence you are not seat poaching (which could be an issue for exit row seats).
I'm not a GA but I imagine that in most cases of double-assigned seats, I'd resolve them in favor of the first-boarded, currently-sitting passenger holding a boarding pass with that seat printed on it, unless there were compelling reasons to favor the person standing in the aisle (medical issue, small children near guardian, etc.). But I would not resolve seat-poaching by giving the poached seat to the poacher. So having a boarding pass showing that seat is actually an important part of the story, and having the FA take it and then claim not to have it would be distressing.
The additional complication of switching to the middle seat assigned to a non-rev is important; it's possible at some point the FA or GA though you were a non-rev refusing to move, because one of the party was in the non-rev's assigned seat. So that could have been a contributing factor.
I wasn't there so I don't have much to say about the rest of the story. I've seen stressed-out under-rested jet-lagged hangry FAs go off for no reason and I've seen passengers be extremely belligerent and abusive towards staff and then claim to have done nothing wrong. So just a case of he said / she said, except it's pax said / UA won't comment.