Does anyone know if there was a recent change in policy on upgrading companions on separate PNRs?
I was under the impression it could be done the day of, at the airport, and had successfully done that several times in the past. Due to my work schedule, I generally am on reservations which start out as leisure and end in a business trip, so I always have to book a different PNR then my SO.
The other day, I was on a flight which was wide open in F, and upon check-in at the BOS, was told that my SO could not be upgraded without me paying for it since it was a different reservation (same flights though). I told her I thought it was fine to do the day of, and had done it in the past. She called over a supervisor who called a desk somewhere to confirm the rules, and also stated you can never upgrade someone a different PNR. I tried again at the gate, was quoted the exact same rule. One of the agents mentioned something about "being called into the office" so my guess is there was a crackdown recently in handing out complimentary upgrades.
Has anyone else had problems recently with these sort of upgrades? or was that never policy in the first place. I thought it was mentioned on the US website in the past, but see no references now. The only reference I could find on FT was here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...n-upgrade.html
It is a bit frustrating when I need to fly on a different reservation for various reasons. I can't un-upgrade myself, so I always have to play musical chairs on board and give the random person an upgrade so that I can sit with my SO, even if I just want to stay in coach.