Originally Posted by
LegalTender
3. First I've heard of that. No unpaid upgrade is automatic. Elites check-in at T-24 to crash the wait-list near the top. Paid seats trump everything, even crew non-revs. AirTran will seat a rival's flight crew in Business if there are unsold seats.
I remember reading here about a year ago where AirTran was providing automatic upgrades for Elites at T-48. I think it was a special promo for a short time after the Southwest announcement.