I got Gold, even though I had not "earned" it. By that I mean that I was just shy of it because I did not realize the new "EQM" thing - can you tell I've been out of the points and miles thing for a while? I was booking cheap tickets on my company's travel site rather than on continental.com, where I was being cheated on my miles and paying the same cost as booking on continental.com.
I got the same type of "even though you haven't earned it" letter. I had posted earlier this year that I might call and ask to be upgraded, but I procrastinated and, it turns out, I didn't need to call anyway. I'm kind of happy, but I have been flying on RJ's since May of last year, so there are no upgrade possibilities, which are my biggest "pain point," to use consulting lingo. I like that I can board earlier (but I could have done this with Silver), I like that I get a priority baggage tag (but I could have done this with Silver, and it's not reliable - a non-elite group that was on standby for my flight today with a LOT of luggage got theirs before mine came out - ok, this is understandable because their luggage went on last, it's going to come out first), and I didn't even get a metal bagtag (my old one recently fell off its faux leather leash).
I did, however, get 4 coupons (though I left them at home this week, so I will be paying for chardonnay on the return flight).
As everyone else said, I also got the stick-on interior luggage tags.
That said, I didn't get caught in a hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, landslide, or Motel 6 this year, so I'm still reasonably happy
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