Originally Posted by
Vegas Agent
This would be the last person I would op-up on ANY flight...no offense. Upgrading someone who checks in late only rewards the situation and encourages the customer to check-in late again the next time. Secondly, with no FF status, much-less an account at all, is this the type of customer we want to bring back, perhaps...but rewarding those who are consitantly and proven to be loyal (elites) would be my first choice.
I know people without Skyteam status who have achieved a significantly better op-up % on NW TATL flights than me just because they arrive late at the MSP gate from their connections out of Podunk, USA. They saw it working first by accident and later adopted it as a self-reinforcing strategy that subsequently led them to fly NW more. So, yes, it happens, again for reasons of operational expediency (gotta close the flight), but more often than you might think. And, although this statement may piss off NW elites, doing so may help gain more future high value customers for NW by giving passengers a good "slot-machine"-like experience...