i am gold elite. i am pretty sure that when i have any fare and check in on the lmachines at the EWR it gives me the option to upgrade right there, and prints out my status etc. on the boarding pass. however the same option is not given to me for my companion... yes when we get to the gate and i hand it over to the woman at the gate counter we can both ge tupgraded from time to time, but i prefer to not have to deal with the people as mistakes can be made and the process can be frustrating. can i buy 2 tickets on different itineraries and put my ff # on both? I would assume that if i did this when we checked in seperately on the electronic check in machines that it would try to upgrade us then and there. am i way off?

As far as I know, it is not possible to do companion upgrades at the electronic kiosks. They must be done by an actual agent. And buying two separate itineraries and putting your number on both would not work, because your name has to match the number in order for the upgrade to go through.

Do companion upgrades have to be companions on the same intenary?? My friend told me that he saw this cute chick at the airport who was taking the same flight and started talking to her and then to inpress her, offered to fly her first class. He was Plat. Elite. He claims he just went to the gate agent and said, "Can you upgrade my companion please?".

I thought this couldn't be done.... this guy was always good at taking advantage of situtions like this.. but I'm not sure if he's telling the truth.....

[This message has been edited by arawal (edited 01-22-2003).]

You can totally upgrade cute girls in the gate area. If your friend really wanted to give her the full service, he should have taken her to the PC and done the upgrade while she was having a drink.

If you want to be really chivalrous and not take advantage of the true intentions of the system, just sit next to her in coach and trade your FC boarding pass for that seat when the ticketed passenger shows up.

Even when I'm traveling with someone on the same route, I book on a separate itinerary so that I'm eligible for EUA at the plat window.

I have upgraded business colleague (different companies) on flights. I met them at a conference and they happen to be on my flight (on NW). So, my associate (also a plat) and I upgraded both of them on a DTW-EWR segment.

As to the PC club, when I had a flight canceled (EWR-BOS) and the last flight out, I found myself next to an attractive young business type woman in the waiting area. She exclaimed out loud, about how frustrated she was about the flight cancellation that I said, "You wanna go to the President's Club?" She said sure. Got her cell phone, but when I got the PC I found out she was travelling on a CO "Buddy Pass" and that she was the g/f of a VP at CO in Houston. She called him while we were sitting there and said that he designed the PC club we were sitting in (C-3 Club).

We parted ways about an hour later, I kept her cell phone number, but lost it when my cell phone crashed and erased my entire address book.

Anyway, the bottom line is yes you can upgrade random strangers, as long as they are on your flight, and 2) you can pick up chicks with your PC Club or Plat/Gold companion upgrades.

- HF

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. The bottom line is that you should get a Bluetooth phone and always sync your address book with Outlook. However, I've gotten burned with an Outlook/syncing mistake and lost a number that way, too, so the real bottom line is to always write down numbers that you don't have elsewhere and can't lose.

Mine was a faulty Belkin Travel Charger that fried my Samsung A460. I should have known when I hooked up the charger and it magically turned on my phone.

- HF

while we are on the subject of picking up cute girls with pc... how does it work if i become lifetime member i am allowed to bring guest with me? or u get certain guess passes a yr?

on flights has anyone had trouble bringing a companion with u in fc when there was availability

Lifetime PC members are allowed to bring in 2 cute girls, or more if they're your children under 21 years old.

Same for regular (year to year) club members.

The UGLY FIREMAN'S order of preference for upgrading a complete stranger on a companion upgrade.

1. Active Military personel
2. War Veteran (Our side LOL)
3. Brother Firefighter
4. Law Enforcement
5. Medical personel
6. AFL-CIO union brother
7. Disabled Senior who may need assistance.
8. Child traveling alone (parents enjoy this
knowing a public servant will keep watch
on their kid.
9. An Ugly person (nobody messes with us for
we have nothing to lose.)

In a previous post I challenged all Elite member to try to Companion upgrade active
Military personel and to at least once a year
give up your first class upgrade to a serviceman if you were unsuccessful in getting them upgraded. Challenge still stands.

On monday 01/20/2003 I upgraded a serviceman of the 25th infantry division on one of the flights we were on together to Hawaii. He was
estatic and very thankful for the unexpect courtesy.