As for going standby, it was definitely an option. However, I didn't feel like taking the gamble and spending the time only to not get on the flight. Moreover, I would have had to go standby on my connection to ALB. Not worth the risk of wasting an entire day of work.

The agent searched all the other carriers out of PIT, and there was nothing that would have put me on the ground with enough time to salvage a respectable work day at the client site, so I'm leaving tomorrow.

Which is great because of the 1.5x EQM for Y booking class ^!

I think what timezone heard about having an agent that didn't "know what they were doing" is the problem here.

I got the ez-update that my flight was cancelled, and called the 1K line to get protected and change the plans. A minute or so after I hung up, the ez update came through that the system automatically put me on another flight (and one I didn't want). When I went to the RCC to see if the automated process had just messed up what I arranged over the phone, I found out that my associate and I had both booking in place. We cleaned up the reservation at the RCC keeping the ones made via the call and were all set.

No reason for the OP to have been off-loaded at all. I guess this is a reminder to check online or call again and verify once the reservation has changed just to "be sure".