Sadly, you were burned by the pilot rest seat. No Kirby Kutback or grand conspiracy against you here, just the pilot contract and compliance with FARs. Not very different from being reseated for an air marshal, insofar as the fact that there is no recourse to get the seat back, even for a GS.
I don’t think 1F is a bad consolation prize on a redeye, though…
Originally Posted by
gokeeper
Checked a few seat maps, on long haul flights, 772 and high J 763 will shows 1A missing, both in UA app GDS, while 789 and 77W won't. This explain why OP ride in 1A between EWR and NRT.
After more digging, I found UA16 switched to 772 from 763 starting Oct 30. My theory is when OP booked this flight, it was scheduled to operated by 763, so OP can select 1A. At some point equipment changed to 772, the system automatically assigned another seat for OP since there is no 1A on 772.
This is some good detective work and exceedingly likely to be the case. Unless there was a system error, 1A should not be assignable on the 76L on a long haul flight.