Date: March 6, 2022
Route: HNL-SFO
Fare class: T
Flight number: 708
Aircraft: Boeing 737-9 MAX (ETOPS)
Status: MVPG100K
Companion: MVPG75K
Time the upgrades cleared: T-22
We were #1 and #2 on the upgrade waitlist listing 7 passengers. For two hours after online checkin had opened, there was a total of 6 open seats in First Class; 2 of them were adjacent. The top 6 names then disappeared from the waitlist, filling the open seats in F.
Watching the waitlist populate was captivating. No other 100K because I had the lowest priority with fare class T, award travel. One other 75K before T-72, #3 on the waitlist. No one else before T-48, so no Gold. Then another four, MVPs.
We did not get seated in adjacent seats, but instead in two window seats across from each other. At the gate, an agent kindly offered to reach out to the passengers seated next to us to see if one would be willing to swap, and one did. It was a good day.
@Seat 2A, I’m sorry to say I had to surrender your seat to sit with my wife. She was put in 2F, and it was a fifty-fifty chance of left or right of the aisle.