Sorry, I'm a lowly silver member so I don't have a lot of experience with complementary upgrades. Wife (no status) and I are on a flight that is within 24 hours. We used award points for this flight in case that matters. It has 16 business class seats and showed 13 booked seats (including those already upgraded). I was top on the list, wife was second, and there was one other person on the upgrade list.

I get a notification that I'm upgraded. About 20 minutes later, I get a itinerary and receipt email that shows a different confirmation code than the original. My wife remains on the original confirmation code. Not sure why this is happening. I look at the upgrade list and it now shows 14 booked and there's only one person on the upgrade list. My wife is no longer on the list.

Called support and they say that it's because the last 2 seats are not eligible for complementary upgrades. Is this a thing? Regardless, why did they split our itinerary into 2 different ones? Shouldn't my wife still be next on the list regardless? If for example, one of the existing 1st class passengers cancels or changes flights, then she should get the seat right?