Oliver,

First of all, is your trip trans-Atlantic? If so, your question is strictly academic, as all of those CO flights are BusinessFirst. And on overseas BF flights, you cannot get complimentary upgrades. If you want to upgrade those flights, you have to do it with miles. Currently flights between Europe and the U.S. cost 20K each way to upgrade if you're flying a discount ticket. And the very low promo fares aren't upgradeable. Check with CO to make sure your tickets are upgradeable.

OTOH, if you can't spare the miles, you can still Elite (no cost) upgrade any U.S. domestic legs of the trip. For example, if you fly DUS-EWR and then EWR-LAX, you're going to be sitting in the back on the DUS-EWR leg, but you can try for a free upgrade on the EWR-LAX leg.

Now, as to your original question, I know that if she didn't have status, and you were on the same PRN, you'd be kicked out of the EUA system, and you'd have to call in for upgrade.

But, if you both are on the same PRN, and there's only one F seat, I think you'd be passed over, but not certain. Check with CO on that. You might want to separate your records...one upgrade is better than none. And most FA's will allow you to rotate in the F seat, although that is discretionary.

But, the bad news is that under EUA, life had gotten increasingly harder for Golds and Silvers. Overall, Golds seem to be upgrading 1/3 to 1/2 of the time, and Silvers almost never. Obviously that would vary with the flight. Transcons and hub to hub flights get a lot of Plats and full-fare flyers, so ya just might as well resign yourself to a 31" pitch seat, and hope there's no one sitting in the center seat. Of course, your odds for an upgrade improve if you're flying on Sat. night, or you're flying to destinations where business flyers don't normally go.

IMHO, if you can afford the miles to upgrade, go for it! I've taken 3 trans-Atlantics in economy on CO this year, and a 9 hour flight in CO's economy is really hell! Besides, BF on the 777 is really nice, and you have a confirmed upgrade up to 30 days prior!

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"An upgrade, an upgrade! My kingdom for an upgrade!"