jackal

Well, when Bob 'n' I were looking to see if we'd been upgraded for the return, even though we were now on separate PNRs, we were both upgraded at the same time. Had I not kept his status, I should have either not been upgraded or should have gotten the upgrade 24 hours after he did.

When I was calling to see about fixing our trip during the volcanic ash mess, the agent on the phone mentioned that, interestingly, my Mileage Plan number was not showing my MVP status, although neither did she mention that I was showing with MVPG status. However, I may have ended up keeping a pseudo-Gold status (or at least fake-Gold-companion status, since Golds can upgrade a traveling partner on the same PNR, right?).

Also, it could have been tied not to my/our current elite status but rather a separate status assigned at the time we booked the reservation and requested the waitlisted upgrades. In other words, the upgrade status is attached to the waitlist request rather than the traveler's actual status--meaning that my upgrade request had Gold status and therefore Gold priority.

You could test this out by booking travel for a following calendar year, requesting the upgrade, and then not requalifying for status. If you still receive the upgrade, then you know the status is attached to the upgrade request. (Of course, who on FT would ever dream of planning on losing status? )

Another option, maybe: if only one U seat opens up, someone traveling with more than one person and with both persons on waitlisted status might not receive the upgrade until two seats open up simultaneously! I don't know if this is the case--just a complete shot in the dark...