Sorry I'm new to FT so bear with me -- I read this post and just had a similar experience.

I just had an experience with this yesterday. My routing was BUR-SFO-JFK and I had been waitlisted for an upgrade on the SFO-JFK sector. The upgrade came from one of my dad's friends, but when I was checking in at BUR I couldn't use the kiosk, and the agent proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions, such as who gave me the upgrade, and where the person lived. I gave them the name but didn't know where they lived. Is this normal? I had also been waitlisted on the flight for over two weeks, and I think the agent in BUR did something because when I got to the gate in SFO I was the last person (#15) on the upgrade waitlist. Needless to say I didn't get it. Is this normal? I flew JFK-LAX on Friday and used the kiosk to check in. That flight too was a waitlist for Business, and the kiosk asked if I wanted to use the confirmed regional upgrade for it..and printed me out a economy boarding pass and an upgrade waitlist pass.

In all honesty, I love United's FIDS but Continental clearly takes the cake for information available on their website, including standby list, upgrade list, etc.

I'm just curious about the upgrade if it was something on their end or what the deal was...