My husband and I flew MCO-EWR on December 16th; I'm CO Gold and he has no status. I kept us on the same PNR because I knew I wouldn't take the upgrade without him, and asked at check-in for our upgrade (2 hours before the flight).

The check-in agent couldn't upgrade us but said he put us on the list. At the gate, I approached the GA and said we should be on the list for an upgrade. She said "then just wait and we'll call your name about 20 minutes before the flight." I asked her to double-check that we were indeed on the list, and we weren't! So she put us on, and asked if we would be willing to split up since she thought there was a chance she'd have one seat, but no more since she had Platinums ahead of us on the list.

I said no, we preferred to stay together (FC was going to be fully booked but coach was half empty and we had a row of 3 seats for the two of us near the front).

When boarding was in progress, I went up and asked if we should just go ahead and board or if there was still a chance, and she again said she had one seat in FC only. So we got in the queue to the jetway.

Just before we passed onto the jetway, she shouted my name and said she had a downgrade, and had two seats for us! Apparently a Platinum was waiting for companion upgrades for his wife and kids, but they didn't have enough seats for all of them (he was already in FC). He said it was easier to give away an FC seat than to deal with his wife if he took it.

I forgot to ask if he was an FT'er, but we were very grateful to him and the GA who shouted my name instead of just letting us board in coach.

One question for you all -- do you find it better to split the PNRs and get one upgrade confirmed in advance, and hope for the companion upgrade at the airport? I was afraid that if I did this, we would lose our 'good' pre-reserved coach seats and then if I decided to downgrade at the last minute (if we didn't get the companion upgrade), that we'd be stuck in really lousy seats if the flight is fairly full.

Susan