Excellent - thanks.

We've got a company policy where if you fly more than 8 hours you're meant to automatically get management permission fly business class. Except that I'm off to a conference, and when you ask to fly business, management say "well, you can always not attend the conference, your choice", since it's their budget that pays for the flight :-( *sigh*

I've registered for an upgrade on the ORD-MCO leg, so with a following wind and a lot of luck I might actually get to MCO relatively well rested. :-) I've no upgrades banked, since I've never flown AA before, but at $70 for two at the airport I think it's such a steal that I'll even pay for myself (I can choose to buy them at the airport if they come through, right? Since they're the second leg for me, I imagine I can go to the lounge at ORD and pay if I get the text message when we land).

By the way, I'm one of those anomalies - a plat who knows nothing about flying on AA, because I was corporate comped last week (you can probably tell, since I know nothing about flying on AA). I'll know enough by the end of the year though, I'm pretty certain to regain status...

Cheers,

-simon