I came across the following article via a reference in the Finnish press:

How to blag a free flight upgrade

The author claims that a woman was upgraded for free on 13 out of 14 flights on a RTW trip, mainly based on being friendly and dressing nice. This sounds completely bogative to me. Is there any reason to believe there is any truth to her claim? As far as I understand, upgrades are handed to those who pay (cash or miles) or for operational reasons - not for having nice shoes.