Firstly, bear in mind that number_6 thinks that this perk may not even be the case (from the first page). That's the problem with an unwritten benefit - how do we (dis)prove it?

I managed this week to use my miles to upgrade a friend Y-J on HKG-DPS for later this month. His girlfriend had enough miles to u/g herself, but not enough for him. I rang MPC and they added him to my Asiamiles redemption list and did the deal on the spot (I'm not even on that flight btw). The very helpful lady on the 'phone said that even though his girlfriend had already redeemed the last "award" seat, as I was DM she would "do me a favour". Now I have no proof that there really were no award seats left - the lady could have just looked at the current load-factor for the flight and decided that they were going to be long in J that day and she could have just been "spinning" me to make me feel special!

I wouldn't count on being able to use the benefit for family/friends, but from experience I do think that MPC agents are allowed to exercise a certain amount of flex for DM members. I reckon that if for instance my friends' flight had been HKG-LHR or some such high load-factor route, I probably wouldn't have been able to get him moved up. Of course the usual golden rule applies - be polite!

OT: A fairly newly-minted DM friend of mine is now 10 for 10 for op-upgrades! 8 legs on HKG-SIN or vv and last week HKG-BKK-HKG. Not bad going! He (and I for that matter) uses http://80.87.143.71/frames_peter.html to track load-factors so that we target packed flights to maximise op-up chances. It's not foolproof, but does provide a pretty good idea. I was op-upped myself HKG-BKK last friday but had to pay the usual airport Y-J u/g THB 5,000 for the return on tuesday.