A lot of this depends on your attitude.

On a recent flight, the person working the gate mentioned that there were only 30 people on board the 737 I was flying (to EWR no less). I mentioned that I had a coupon, but didn't bother bringing it because I'd found that FC is always full on flights into EWR. He said he'd see if he could help me out, and 20 minute later came by to bump me to 1st class.

In another nice gesture, he bumped up a very nervous first-time flyer who was sitting next to me in the terminal.

Of all my flights in the past couple of years, I've always received the best service from Continental, despite not being an Elite.