I was flying from Vegas to SFO two years ago and they made an announcement that anyone who wanted to upgrade to first could do so by going to the counter and paying $20.00 It sounded too good to be true, but sure enough $40.00 upgraded us both. Everyone else must have thought the same because only a couple of others took them up on it. I guess they had oversold the coach section and found it easier and cheaper to almost give away first seats then to pay people to be bumped. Too bad the majors don't do that. The great thing is that it was the day after our wedding and we were on our way to SFO to catch a flight to SYD for our Honeymoon. It really made our day!