Here is one for ya.

I am currently gold and traveling on a “X” class fare. Did CO.com check-in early in the morning for an evening 8:30PM flight and was placed on the upgrade standby list.

My co-worker, who is silver, checks in about 3 hours before the same flight. She is in “R” class and gets upgraded. She paid the same amount for her ticket as I did, because we both purchased them at the same time from our internal corporate travel agency.

While waiting for the flight I approach the desk and ask about my upgrade status. Gate agent says I’m second in line after a Plat. I ask why my silver co-worker was upgraded before me and his response was “I don’t know why the computer does what it does”.

Sitting back down, my co-worker and I begin conversation with another passenger. He is also silver and was upgraded. His ticket class was “R”. Don’t know what the original ticket class was, but he paid at least 10x what my co-worker and I paid. I attribute his upgrade to a last minute Y class, but attributed my co-workers upgrade to a freak incident.

No I was waiting in line to board and run into another individual who works for my same company. He bought an economy class ticket, is currently silver, and was upgraded too.

So now I know that three silvers were upgraded before a gold on this flight. What is going on here?

As I sat in the plane seat the gate agent called for the final upgrade, it was the Plat that was before me on standby.