OK, we have the "Battlefield" upgrade, which happens on the plane, once you've stowed your bags and have to swim upstream amid all the dirty looks...

And as I understand it, the "EUA" is for before you get to the airport (or check-in).

I had a new type of upgrade happen to me yesterday. I checked in on line in advance of going to the airport (about 5 hours out). Upgrade not confirmable, placed on the list.

I got to the airport and after going through security I went up to the friendly Kiosk and saw about changing my seat (There's a black hole in the logic that one can't change one's seat when checking in online, and if it's under 30 hours, you can only change seats at the airport, the day of the flight)

At that point the upgrade had been processed and it cheerfully spit out a new boarding pass.

So, it's not a battlefield upgrade, strictly speaking (although the north concourse of IAH-C does look like a war zone right now...), since I did all the advantages of boarding early, etc. But it's not an advance or check-in upgrade either.

I would maintain that it's also better than the "pester the gate agent by hanging around" pseudo-battlefield upgrade that I would have received had I not used the kiosk again (and it's nice that you can do this with the kiosks now). I maintain we should call that one a "Blue-Carpet Battlefield" upgrade, since it is essentially a battlefield upgrade but you still get to trod on Gordon's blue carpet.

So, we should come up with a zippy name for this type of upgrade.
Any military terms for receiving the promotion before you get to the battlefield come to mind?