A few years ago, I had an extremely cruel beep.

I'd been given an upgrade from J to F returning from IAH, thanks, it later transpired, to a regular poster on this board who was working the flight and had somehow worked out who I was and worked his magic.

However, when I got to the gate, the magic bleep came and I was back in J. It appears that someone had lost their passport down the side of "my" seat and crew had to dismantle it to retrieve said article. Despite the best efforts of crew, they'd been unable to repair the seat, so I ended back in J.

I was very thankful to the good samaritan who had arranged the upgrade, despite the fact that it came to nothing.

My disappointment was alleviated by a touch of schadenfreude. As I was settling in, my ex-boss passed me, heading to the back as the old firm had changed their policy to Y everywhere.