My first op-up was back in February 1999 on a China Airlines flight, which was operated by a Mandarin Airlines aircraft, from Amsterdam to Bangkok. I had booked a Y-C upgrade using a voucher earned after accumulating a certain number of miles, then was further upgraded to F at the gate. The aircraft, MD11 B150, crash landed at Hong Kong six months later.
My second was a bit of a strange one, as I was upgraded many hours before the flight concerned. Itinerary BKK-DXB-LGW with Emirates in July 2004, and I was just a lowly Skywards Blue. On checking in at Bangkok my seat allocation for the DXB-LGW sector was in row 8, a low number for what was a three class 332. A quick check of the seat plan in the EK timetable showed row 8 to be business, and that’s what I got. I always travel smartly dressed, am sure the agent inputted me as suitable for upgrade, and the system told her to do just that.
Who says appearance doesn’t matter? It did with these. In July 2005 I switched to Qatar. I was about 10m from the gate for my flight to Bangkok when the lady who was staffing the lane I was approaching prodded her male colleague. He, who must have been the senior of the two, looked up, nodded and the rest is history. Just three months later I was on the same flight, this time I had passed through the gate and was standing near to it when a member of Qatar’s staff, who by appearance was of supervisory status, asked to see my boarding pass. On seeing it he told me to wait there as he would put me in business class. On both occasions I was again smartly dressed, and was picked out for upgrade for that alone.
Since then I have had a bucket load of op-ups with Qatar. Some on overbooked flights at peak periods such as Christmas and New Year, but others were accommodating passengers who had missed connections at Doha, resulting an what was an under-booked flight becoming oversubscribed in Y to cater for them.