I have all the city concierge numbers on my Blackberry/Outlook. I'd suggest this, the concierges have more power than GAs and I'm sure they could have figured something out for you... Make sure to send a quick note to Customer Solutions - I think downgrade is 15,000 points - it was to HKG for my wife last year (x2)

I can sympathize Shareholder - I was on NZ a few years ago and as a *G they said - "oh, we have a pretty empty flight! I'll block you off a row to yourself so you can stretch out". As soon as we took off, some guy came and sat on the aisle seat. I told him the row was blocked for me, and asked him if he would mind moving after the meal service so I could sleep, and he said "can't you sleep across 3 seats?". No. I'm tall! He stayed there and we didn't say another word to eachother. ugh.