American Airlines - What are you thinking? - Where's your customer care ?

American Airlines is charging 25.00 per person for a seat assignment if requested over the phone?
I booked two cabins with Oceania Cruise lines using the free air package promotion. ...Of course nothing is free - the 'free air' also carries $800.00 per person in taxes, security fees and fuel surcharge.... and of course if you want to confirm a non-stop direct flight there is a deviation fee of 100.00 per person to secure an acceptabe flight. This, sadly is the way the world works these days ....But, as I want my clients to sit together on the flight and I don't have the PNR # seeing it was booked through a cruise line, I call American to discover there is a 25.00 fee per seat assignment when requested over the phone. Let's get some customer service and good PR here . I'm usually a pretty level-headed agent but this has made my blood boil. I did achieve my goal by going on line and avoiding the fee and I could say that's a good reason to use a consultant but it's the waste of time that gets to me .
On the other hand - my clients are returning on Delta Airlines, who assigned their seats and cross-referenced the reservations with no fee. Thank you Delta, your customer service is appreciated.