Originally Posted by GIGFY

The thought (not even a prayer, nor even the need for steps 3 & 4) worked for me last night EWR-LHR!

I wandered from PC to the gate exactly 60 minutes before scheduled departure, knowing flight was sold out in coach, but with apparently 1 seat left in BF.

I could tell it was an VDB opportunity (which I did not really want, as needed to get home, and had my preferred exit row window seat), as I overheard agent saying "see you same time tomorrow" to pax. I was thinking about either the VDB or steps 3 & 4 above when I caught the eye of the BF concierge, who at that very moment announced my name (weird!), up I went, and she asked for my boarding pass so that she could exchange it for BF seat due to "operational reasons".

Great result - my second ever TATL op-up - and an excuse to re-open one of my favourite CO threads on FT! BTW, it was also a great flight - excellent service throughout.

And this after my first failure in many, many months not to get upgraded on a RSW-EWR flight (and was even as low as #6 on the list!).