A weird situation happened to me today in AUS. I am in the middle of a trip from Dallas to Reno, then flying back from Sacramento. To maximize the DBL06 and AA100 bonuses, I booked the trip DAL/AUS/ORD/RNO outbound and SMF/DFW/SAT/DAL return. It was actually the same price as direct flights from DFW.

This morning when I checked in at DAL, I had not been upgraded from AUS to ORD. So when I arrived in AUS, I went to the gate, showed the agent my boarding pass, and asked if I was upgraded or in coach. She said I was in coach and first was full.

So when I board, the machine kicks out my boarding pass saying it's a duplicate. The same agent accuses me of not checking in for my first class seat. I remind her that I asked her if I had been upgraded an hour before departure, and she had not called my name from the gate to tell me I had been upgraded.

Mumbling ensues. She basically says 2 seats are broken in first, and my coach seat, 9D, has been given away. She offers me 32 D on a MD 80. I don't like 32 D. Those of you who have sat in the last aisle seat by the coach bathrooms on the MD 80, 737 or 757 know what I am talking about.

Anyway, the agent ends up offering the girl currently sitting in 9 D a $200 voucher to give me the seat back and move to 32 D. I had not heard of a passenger being offered a voucher to move to the back of the plane before. I would have sat in 32 D for a $200 voucher.

Although the gate agent was a bit grumpy, the flight attendants were very nice about the situation.

Has anyone else heard of someone getting paid to move from one coach seat to another?

Thanks.