>>>>Thought people say a silver can't get op upgrade? Why do you reckon you got upgrade? Was it your fare? I presume plane was packed full? Or maybe some obnoxious platinum wanted your seat more than you do so they gave it to them and bumped you to a better place


Fare was basic. Plane was packed. Since it was between-holiday holiday traffic (after xmas but before new years), maybe the plane was holiday-full but not high-demand for demanding people--so a Silver could slide up.

The only karma/PNR-compensation factor I could figure was that my luggage was delayed more than 24 hours outbound (it missed my MSP connection--after that it was scheduled to arrive on Dec. 24th at 2pm--but I kept calling the airport and checking online and it kept getting bumped off the promised connections from AMS--it finally arrived on the last AMS-HAM flight that night although it had originally been scheduled much earlier--and if we hadn't been listening carefully as the guy rolled it along cobblestones to the wrong house doors I wouldn't have been able to run out in my socks to get it from him that Xmas eve at 1030pm, barely in enough time to get to church before midnight).

On the return, by the way, one piece of luggage on the HAM-AMS-DTW-MSN routing didn't make it through AMS, while the other piece DID indeed make it as far as DTW with me, but did not make the DTW-MSN connection. Both pieces showed up the next night (New Years Eve) around 1030pm--nicely submarining ANOTHER holiday evening. Nutso luggage handling, but a very nice upgrade on the AMS-DTW flight. Thank you, somehow, NWA!