Thanks again! Just to clarify, the BA system is that customer service (again after a serious IRROP like a very long delay, cancelled flight resulting in major inconvenience, etc) will make customers eligible for a specific upgrade (e.g. Economy to Premium Economy, or Business to First) on a space available basis. This is a goodwill gesture which is not tied to a specific flight but is also not tied to specific upgrades conditions (so you wouldn't need the person to be on a full fare upgradeable ticket, nor for very restrictive upgrade inventory to be available). As it is directed to fairly frequent flyer, the assumption is that it will clear for one of their long haul flights. I would say that from a frequent flyer point of view it is quite a lot more valuable than miles because the use is very significantly less restrictive (in effect, you simply need a seat to be free in the cabin of the proposed upgrade for it to clear regardless of your booking class!). Example of a thread discussing it here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-find-out.html On BA, it is one of the standard options available to CS agents (and I believe it is the same on most US airlines) so I thought it would be interesting to mention/compared.

The idea of granting status miles sounds really interesting but comparatively, I believe it would be far more innovative as I am not aware of other airlines doing it.