I am a Premier Executive flyer on United, and nearly every time that I want to upgrade, I have not had any trouble. There have been two or three occasions when I have gone stand-by on earlier flights, then upgraded ahead of other flyers because of my status.

I have only had two complimentary upgrades. Both happened this summer.

The first was a packed flight from DEN to MCI (Kansas City). They wanted to pack the coach cabin, so they bumped me up to first class.

The second was part of very long tale. I was planning a move to Dallas from San Francisco, and I was already close to Executive status on United, so I wanted to improve my status on American since they dominate DFW. I had a trip to Sao Paulo (GRU) from SFO planned in July. I was going to take AA through JFK down to Brazil. My flight to JFK was fine, although you do NOT want seat 2B on a 767 since people will walk all over you during the boarding. When I got to the Admiral's Club at 9:30 PM and learned that my 10:30 departure was now 1 AM. On a full fare Business Class ticket, I could change to any airline, so I asked them to call United--I had taken the United flight in June. Talking to the ticket counter was not a help (they could not confirm a seat for me), so I had them call the Red Carpet Club. The Red Carpet staff put me on the plane in Business Class, and then I raced over to terminal 6 in a cab (for my 10:45 departure). Once I was on the plane, the gate agent came on and upgraded me (and another gentleman) to First Class for the long 10 hour flight.