Reading the thread, I now know that we were extremely lucky.

Flying coach SFO-FRA with my spouse (Senator/Nothing), I asked at SFO about upgrades. The very pleasant Asian check-in agent offered mileage based upgrade options. Of course having forgotten the new mileage redemption, I thought we were only a few short for the 2 of us. WRONG!

I was a few short of ONE upgrade (50,000). [Remember when 100,000 got you a free RT F to Europe from the US.]

Well, we sat in our Y seats until the flight attendant asked my partner about his seat. Then another passenger asked about my seat. We knew that we were in the middle.

The sweetest thing was when I asked about an espresso: only upstairs? Well I got one with compliments!

Nobbi