Originally Posted by BZRORG

You are 100% right, my mother is not the best with instructions, and I am not sure what exactly was said; however, I gave her what i thought would be the salient points prior to going into the meeting:
1. Instructions on monitoring the upgrade wait list, at the time of check in she was #13 with 18 seats available. I mentioned that things were looking good barring any unforeseen circumstances
2. That I had used my pluspoints and had already paid the premium departure tax for her, so there should be no extra fees involved
3. The upgrade would likely only happen at the gate, so dont meander around the airport
4. If you see seats still available in polaris (not by the seat map but where it shows capacity/booked/checked in and boarding starts/about to start let the gate agent know you are on the upgrade list and see if you should board with your group or hold back.
This is where she was told she could upgrade for the $copay + miles and she said no thanks. Was the delivery flawless from her part? I am 100% sure it was not, but with the above it should have been enough to prompt the GA.

After I got out of my meeting and saw a message that they didnt upgrade her i immediately called her to ask her to call for the purser and or gate agent. This transpired while the door was still open, and i had her word for word explain to the purser what the situation was and had her show him the upgrade waitlist and ask for the GA. He then went back and forth with the gate agent and eventually came back and relayed the message from the GA that her ticket was not eligible for an upgarade, and there were 4 1ks that were not upgraded, and maybe this works for domestic flights but not for international and basically tough luck. It really shouldn't be this hard!

Ive sent an email to 1k voice - lets see what they have to say. I will keep you all updated if anyone cares once i receive an reply.