A situation only a FTer could appreciate:

Part 1: I'm on a flight BOS-MIA at 6:25pm tomorrow night, with the return on Thursday. Originally, the outbound was F0 P0 A0 and I had been upgraded for the return to 1E. The 7:45 tomorrow night, however, was showing F7 A7, so I figured that if I could switch my flight, I'd be sure to get upgraded.

Part 2: I asked my assistant to call travel and find out if there was a substantial cost to switch the outbound to the later flight and not change the return. Instead, however, she went ahead and actually made the change. Oops. I went online and noticed that I was now in coach on the outbound AND the return had moved me back to coach. I checked the boxes to request an upgrade and, sure enough, it upgraded me immediately for the outbound but put on the waiting list for the return, or the opposite of my original situation. A panicked call to AA got me back into F on the return in 1E, so I was now in F in both directions.

Part 3: My assistant told me that the total charge would be $217, which included a change fee and a higher bucket ticket. If it had just been the $100 change fee, I would have paid it myself, but I didn't feel like going out of pocket $217 for a 3-hr flight, so she called travel back to revert to the original booking (Don't worry, I give her a nice Christmas present. ). The travel department managed to get me on back on the original itinerary, took away the fees and got me back into 1E on the return, with the outbound seat not assigned. I chose 24D and checked off the box for the upgrade. Unfortunately, with the new "priority given based on request date" system, I would now be at a disadvantage to my original ticket, which I had booked a month ago.

Part 4: With EF showing F0 P0 A0, and despite the fact that I had been on the F waitlist since the 100 hr point, the system upgraded me immediately. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took 6E happily.

Bottom line: Can anyone explain how I got the immediate upgrade? My fare class didn't change and I was back on my original itinerary (at least, as far as I can see). I seem to have jumped some sort of queue.

Mike