The one nightmare looking similar to this I had was on a BAQ-PTY-AMS flight on one ticket (as a part of an AMS-Colombia return, outbound simply AMS-BOG) with BAQ-PTY done by Copa, PTY-AMS by KLM. It was 2017 and could get a reasonably priced upgrade to J with miles for PTY-AMS. They somehow cancelled everything and only put the PTY-AMS flight back......nervewrecking scenes between me and gate agent calling both KLM Colombia and NL at BAQ to get my flight re-instated which happened 10 minutes before departure...they were lenient not closing the door yet....but this situation was clearly triggered by my request for an upgrade and the improper handling of this by staff. Not something happening in cyberspace as with the OP.