Originally Posted by SFO voyageur
I find CO & DL somewhat more progressive in giving out upgrades to elites at the gate and only rarely have I seen a NW agent actually board to pull someone to the front after they have already gone to sit in coach. (The one time I noticed it the flight seemed to have been overbooked and they were scrambling to find more coach seats.)
CO & DL tends to upgrade elites at the gate because CO & DL typical don't release all F seats until a few hours before the flight, whereas NW releases most of F seats. However, in some case, I had some bad experience like you did with NW: stuck in coach, while 2 F seats were given to non-revenue passengers! A letter to WP and got 2 complimentary upgrade coupons.