While entering the MEL SQ lounge sometime in Jan, I asked the lounge lady about load factor. She somehow worked out that I was hinting about upgrade chances, and cheekily told me that had I flown a day earlier there would have been a 99% chance of getting upgraded as the same flight was "massively overbooked" a day earlier. I then pointed out that I was only a UA*G, and she mentioned something about how I would have been quite high up the ranks as far as economy pax go based on the flight the day I was travelling. And finally I could not help it and blurted out that SQ never upgrades. She replied something along the lines of "oh you might be surprised." Found it hard to believe her though as there are 3 dailies out of MEL and it was only the 2nd flight of the day I was travelling on, so surely the airline would have attempted to accomodate pax on a later flight.

I can see the point of what SQ does though - I'd want to be feeling that I paid for J or F for a reason if I fork out thousands of dollars for the extra class of service.