Last April we took advantage of an award sale on AS to do a long weekend in Vancouver for my birthday. This was going to be our only flight in the window of time that we had 3 F upgrade coupons for AS - but the fine print said "valid on full fare tickets only" or some such thing.

At SFO I asked if we could upgrade our tickets (not only FF, but DISCOUNT FF tickets!) - GA gave a firm but polite "No."

At YVR I asked again, very politely - but just as the GA was getting ready to say the "No" my 4 year old pipes up "Today is my Mommy's birthday!" and since my passport was already open in the Ga's hand, she could easily she he was telling the truth.

We enjoyed row 1 very much.