The real scam here is not the change itself, because that’s normal airline ops whenever there is more than one a/c type in the fleet. In this case, however, the real problem is the fact that they let you reserve a specific seat on a route that they know will be “optimized” frequently.
On the issue of CX customer service:
Being stonewalled like this, unfortunately, seems to be standard procedure in HK. I have this happen almost every time I contact any form of customer service in HK. You get fed into some flow chart that ends up making a full circle around itself. Nobody makes the move to offer a genuine comment, explanation or apology. Initiating any form of discussion is met with “we have a procedure”. End of story. This goes for airlines, banks, insurers, hospitals, retailers, telecom operators. Over the years I have seen very few (maybe one or two) exceptions to this rule.
