Then absent a bald-faced lie to the company's face, I don't know how you refused a legal IA.

Don't get me wrong. I hate the idea of an IA, and I have never been IA'd. I also understand if the company meets you at the gate to IA you for the next day that you might want to burn the place down. I do remember a couple of times when the company called me at home to try and IA me, but because I am proactive and have my "ringmaster" number in DBMS, I knew why they were calling and didn't pick up. (I suppose that would be a case of I did not want it "deep down").

But if you are met at the gate, and the agent gives you a legal next-day IA, you pretty much have to take it. I realize that you may have some absolutely legit reasons to decline it, and you might win and the company looks elsewhere, but there are other instances when you don't, and you have to take it, and it has nothing to do with "deep down inside really wanting it."

In any case, jetway IAs are fairly rare, but not unheard of during certain periods of crew staffing buffoonery.