Originally Posted by
FullFare
Not sure that it is fair to brand a singular person, requesting upgrade through legitimate upgrade channels, as a "jerk". My wife and I have both been diamond for the past 7 years. We, too, always sit together, regardless (married 48 yrs) and rarely are in a situation at the gate where we haven't both cleared yet, mainly because our policy is to almost never get into a scenario where we haven't cleared prior to gate (policy is usually only to upgrade is available at time of ticketing). For the most part, we will simply pay for the discounted first and not deal with apprehension of upgrades at the gate.
As for upgrades not guaranteed at the time of booking, we just about always use the upgrade certificates. We each get 4 each year for Plat, then an extra 8 each for diamond. That's 24 for the year. The certificates go ahead of others using status if such others don't have a certificate like we do. If we run out of certificates, we use miles. Hate heading for the airport hanging on to watching the monitor to see if we've cleared.
I don't mind, as a DM flyer, having my certificate upgrade clear before a fellow DM flyer who didn't provide a certificate, and being such a "jerk" in doing so. That's been our schtick and it works for us.
Seems like this is another case where a joking tone was lost in translation to text. I guess the experience of exaggeratedly complaining to your companions - “man, #2 for 1 seat. Who’s this BAS/E guy? What a jerk!” - isn’t as universal as I thought it was. Obviously, no actual hard feelings toward anyone else on the upgrade list as long as the rules are applied consistently - that’s the game. But that still doesn’t mean I can’t be sad and jokingly direct my ire at a semi-anonymous name on the list when I’m stuck in coach
