Did you take steps once on board to solve the problem with the help of CC and another pax to swap seats so that you and your wife could be together? Some US check-in staff are not very helpful and when it happened to me and my wife I sorted it out myself once on board. Generally speaking you'll always find someone willing to help out. Even if they had a valid "operational" reason (sounds more like "operational cock-up" to me) they should not treat premium pax the way they apparently did. Bad for business. In future take your business elsewhere and let them know it in writing why.