Headed YYZ-YHZ last month on sad personal business, I checked in online (0002 on the flight) in the hopes it would get me upgraded from my T+ fare. I also reserved 12K which is a very nice seat. I left the lounge a little early so I could be at the gate in case the GA wanted to talk to me but no such luck. When the preboard started I decided what the heck, and went to get on. I let the mum and kids go in front of me, but they didn't want to board (even though that was what had just been announced), they had just suddenly decided to talk to the GA. When their business was done, the GA takes my BP and says "yes?" or something like that. I was just "er, I was going to board?" but she wasn't in that mode. She looked at my BP and said "didn't I change your seat?". I could feel my blood pressure going up. "Yes," she continued, tapping keys, "I had to move you to put a family together." I was about to burst into tears right there in the airport. Of all the crappy reasons to fly, hoping you get to the hospital in time has got to be the worst, and now I'm not even going to get my ratsen-fratsen 12K and I'm going to be in 407W or some such thing? In fact this upset me so much I couldn't speak, which is just as well because she went on, "so I moved you up a few rows ".

Nice (though slightly odd) meal, no wine because I was driving, but it made flying there a lot nicer. And I did get to the hospital in time, and my arrival made a difference, and my dad is home under palliative care now instead of expiring in a horrid hospital room. I must say in that context that a moved seat becomes less important, but for those few seconds standing at the gate it felt like the biggest ripoff in the world that I wasn't even going to get the seat I booked. I wonder if the staff realize how important small things are sometimes?