2 MVPS, 1 Reservation, 1 FC upgrade left
 

How does this work?

My GF and I are both MVPs. On a flight in two weeks with one FC seat available. Oddly, no other seats are booked in the elite section, leading me to believe there's a good chance that the FC seat will stay available if no one buys it.

With that said, how would the upgrade process work for us ( let's just assume everything goes our way ). I know if one gets it, we could just decide who takes it, but i'm curious how Alaska determines the upgrade.

The person after the two of you on the WL will get it, unless you call and ask to have your res split.

hmmm....in this case we used the companion pass. I'm guessing we can't split the reservation?

not the end of the world. It's a 2 hour flight. Plenty of space in premium economy as a consolation prize.

This is one of the things that I actually like about this upgrade process...if I'm with my wife (also an MVP), I want to sit with her, regardless of what cabin we're in so if they have an upgrade for both us, we'll take the upgrade, otherwise I usually would prefer to stay together (and that's what the system is automatically set up to do when you are on the same reservation).

In tight upgrade situations this can get a couple passed over. If only one seat at a time gets released, it will skip the couple each time, even though there would have been plenty of inventory to upgrade both people over time.

Also, some partners don't mind being split up for a flight. I would rather one of us get the better experience than neither, if I could have the choice. The relationship should last a few hours, so why not let one person have the better experience if both can't?

There really should be a setting to accommodate for different preferences on this one.

The "setting" is to call and split the reservation into separate record locators. Then each passenger can be upgraded separately.

True, but then there's an IRROPS issue where you may not get rebooked together on the same flight.

Also, they don't allow splits on companion fare tickets.

Generally not, but have had it happen for IRROPS, etc..

Last week, my husband and I were flying ATL-SEA. I am MVPG, he has no elite status, and I had booked our tickets using a companion fare. On the upgrade list, I was #3 , he was not listed at all, and there were probably 5 other people listed after me.

The monitor at the gate showed 16 FC booked and 16 checked in by the time boarding started, so we settled in to our coach seats. A few minutes before door closure, the FA came to tell me that I had been upgraded to FC. My husband and I had agreed ahead of time that if I got an upgrade I would take it, so that's what I did.

On the way out from SEA-ATL, we were both upgraded to FC (and on the same companion fare reservation). I was very surprised to get an upgrade both ways as my experience has been that SEA-ATL-SEA is not usually available. It made a tough trip nicer as we were traveling due to an unexpected death in my family.

I've had companions split at the gate as well for upgrades. Doesn't always happen though.