I flew out to Chicago from Newark for Memorial day weekend. Left Friday around 10:30am. On weds evening, I had the upgrade announcement in my email....WOW thats cool....I am only silver this year. This was on a 737-500. The most feared plane in the fleet. All of 6 1st class seats.....I was more than happy to accept this. I printed the boarding pass thurs morning, went straight to the gate on friday morning. No human interaction. Got my seat and was off.
The flight home was over sold on Monday. So I gave up my seat for a 1st class on the next flight one hour later. Of all 6 seat on that flight, only 1 was taken by a paying 1st class customer. All of the other 5 were people who gave up their seats. Along with the upgrade, I got a 300.00 travel voucher for another flight......so it was good trip<G>