Fairly large cut in number of seats available, but interesting still. Must have been a lot of paid J / SE on high fares on the flight.

Agree you should have called the SE desk if the agent was not in a helping mood.

The reassignment to a middle seat was poor. My only downgrade experiences have been those in which a/c with an exec cabin was downgraded to one without. I've been stuck in the back of the plane with my reassignment, though someone will usually try to reassign for me.