My wife and I are barely silver elites, which is to say we are not business flyers and struggle to make our 25K each year. Since we need the miles to stay silver, I concluded that the best use of our miles would be domestic upgrades. We recently tried this on a trip to Alaska.

Continental's preferred routing is CLE-IAH, IAH-ANC, ANC-IAH, and IAH-CLE. A little long, but a nice chunk of miles. I went onto Co.com and found two H fares (we really need the bonus miles this year), and called the upgrade desk while I was online. They said they could upgrade legs 1 and 3, but would wait-list us for legs 2 and 4. I checked and leg 2 appeared to be fully subscribed, but leg 4 had seats available (but with so few seats in a 737, they probably didn't want to give up those seats yet (a month in advance)). I felt the odds were reasonable, so I bought the seats and gave up the miles.

A week before the flight, the wait list came through for leg 4 and we were upgraded. I again checked leg 2 and it appeared to still be fully subscribed, so I said 3 of 4 isn't bad. Two days before the flight, I checked again and there were 3 seats available on leg 2; I awaited favorable action, but it never came; I again checked at 24 hours before takeoff, as we checked in, and on the actual morning of the flight, and the three seats were still available.

When we arrived at the airport, I asked about the available seats, but the GA at Cleveland said that would have to be handled by the GA at Houston. We had a short connection at Houston, so I rushed up to the GA and asked about the seats; she said the seats were taken. There appeared to be some confusion about the wait list vs. the upgrade list, so I made it clear that we had paid with miles, and she confirmed that, but said no seats were available. There was no time to discuss it further, so we plugged into our seats in the back cabin. As boarding progressed, suddenly the line was interrupted, and the GA appeared with boarding passes for 1A and 1B; I don't know how she worked this miracle, but I appreciate her efforts on our behalf.

So the net result is that we flew front cabin on all four legs. I think next time, however, I'll give them a call when seats suddenly appear, rather than waiting for the wait list to work (or not work).