Unhappy about being upgraded. Why?
Hello everyone, something has bothered me for quite a while, and I want to see if FTers, people who fly the most, might be able to share some insight that would make me feel better.
For a family trip last month, Me, Mrs. sylaw72, her brother, sister-in-law, and 3 kids, 6-years old, and two 3-year old twins were all going to Hawaii for our very first family trip together (actually, his first family vacation with the twins). I booked the traveling itinerary (with his knowledge and approval), and decided to try to upgrade all of us. Incredibly, I was able to use my stack of CR1s to upgrade all of us about 6 weeks before the flight. I was quite happy that I did that, so I told my brother-in-law about it. His first response was that he didn't want to be upgraded because it would be a waste for his small kids. I told him that the certificates were free, and that some of them were expiring anyway. Because I couldn't talk then, I told him that why don't we talk about it some more at a scheduled lunch gathering that we have the together the next day, and he said OK. (this entire conversation was about 1 minute, and took place around around 930PM). Around 11PM that night, I got an email from him that informed me, in a polite manner, that he didn't want the upgrade, so he called UA to cancelled the upgrade for his own family of five, and just decided to sit back in coach. He was unable to get seating assignments (because he was only a general member, and the available seating assignments were given out) until the airport, but he was OK with that, because he figured that UA will be accommodating to families with kids.
Can anyone give me a good reason why someone would not want an upgrade (for a 5 hour trip to Hawaii)? If I can find some rationale that makes sense to me, then I wouldn't feel so bad thinking that he did it because he has something against me. Thanks for listening.