I've been getting the "A" thing for months now.

Looks to me like a BS publicity stunt. And - BTW - they make you go to a desk past security to print out the "real" boarding pass anyway. On BA, AA, DL and CO, the paper you print out at home has a bar code and gets you on the plane. With LY, you still have to reprint. Amazing how the "national airline" of a country that is on the bleeding edge of technology doesn't properly implement technology.