Originally Posted by
SchmutzigMSP
One important thing to keep in mind is that when the EUA runs, if there is only one seat available for upgrade, it will pass on you and go to the next Plat below you (if they're traveling solo). Or if you're the last Plats on the list, it will go to a Gold, etc.
That rarely comes into play because most of the time when it hits you there are at least two or more seats available. But it might happen, so worth knowing about.
Once the upgrades are under airport control, however, they will typically upgrade one of you if there's only one seat, or sometimes they'll call you up and ask if you wish to be split or if they should keep moving down the list.
This happened to me about a week ago. I was flying r/t, 2 legs both ways. Got the upgrade for myself and my companion at the 5 day window for outbound legs. For the return, got the upgrade for the first leg at the 5 day window, but never got the upgrade for the second leg. I suspect that I somehow got passed over incorrectly. After the plat window ran, it still showed P9. I know EUA has to have R availability, but I mention the P9 just to show that FC wasn't sold out or full. So for me to not receive the upgrade, they either had to sell all 9 of those seats or R was released 1 seat at a time. Both possible but it is one of those things that make you go "hmmmmmmmmm". The flight was at 9AM on a Wed from DTW-FLL. Wouldn't think that is is a particularly heavy elite flight but could be wrong. I'm not complaining, just sharing my experience.
And, for the record, I know from first had experience that EUA can, and does, make mistakes. Full Y tickets normally upgrade automatically within hours of purchase, 24 hours at most. I've had to call on full Y's that didn't upgrade after 72 hours even though FC was wide open.