Yup, it will be 5K miles each way, but nope, Y upgrades come from the F bucket. Even for silver elites (until 9/1/02), Y upgrades come from the F bucket.

As for tips, you can check the flights on http://flyaow.com/classavailability.htm . If her flights show "Fx" in the class availability, where x>0, then she can call CO and get an upgrade. She will need her PIN number (and of course, the miles in the account). If her flights show F0, then there are currently no upgrade seats available. In this case, request to be waitlisted or switch to a flight that does have F availability. The airline will likely release them before departure, if there are still first class seats left (that's what the "A" code tells you). The window between 3 and 3.5 hours before departure is the best time to snag F seats, after they are released but before they are automatically assigned to elites.

Now, if your daughter doesn't have any miles with CO (or NW or HP for now), then she shouldn't hold her breath.

OK - I just checked the 7am EWR-SFO flight on 8/15. Only 3 first class seats available but no upgrades. None for the 9:30 flight either. Strong likelihood that they sell those 3 seats or upgrade a high-level elite who purchases a Y fare. Still might be worth waitlisting. Mileage upgrades usually get fairly high priority in the waitlist.

[This message has been edited by ijgordon (edited 08-13-2002).]