Originally Posted by
ellinj
One caveat to the upgrade trick, it doesn't work if your flight is delayed and a seat becomes available after the original departure time. It tells you that you can't check in after departure time has passed.
That is a good point!
I scored another one of these this morning CLT - IAH. I checked in 24 hours out and was #1 on the upgrade list. All day yesterday no F seats showed as available. This morning when I woke up at 6AM I checked and sure enough it showed 1F. I quickly "changed seats" and was able to select 1D. Woo hoo. Presumably I would have gotten it anyway since I was #1 on the upgrade list but someone checking in that morning who had any elite status could have snagged it had they done their first check-in.