Originally Posted by
joyoustravel
I posted on another thread-- this happened to me. I used an Amex companion certificate to fly with my friend ATL-LAX. I am Gold, she is Silver. I purchased the ticket and I accrued miles; her ticket did not. That route is full of medallions so I didn’t check the upgrade window. Upon boarding, I was in front of her and gate agent took my ticket. She was behind me, and the “new” ticket came out that gave her a Delta comfort window seat. I sent a complaint to Delta. Gentleman from Delta called me and said since she had been “upgraded” to my status as Gold, the deciding factor “was probably” that her last name was alphabetically before mine.
On the flight home we were both upgraded to middle seat comfort class. However, upon check in, the agent asked if ONE seat became available for an upgrade, would we be willing to split for one person to go to 1st? We had no chance of getting the 1st class upgrade so it was a non-question. But she did ask! My friend does have the black Delta AmEx (I have platinum) so maybe that is a deciding factor they haven’t told flyers about?
That, and I think there may be Shena.
A companion on the same PNR as you will have the same upgrade priority as you. If you check-in together, you will only upgraded together. However, if you check-in separately, you can be upgraded independently. I suspect that your companion likely checked-in prior to you and therefore had a higher upgrade priority (rather than it being alphabetical). At any rate, your example appears to have very little to do with OP's case.