PokerHammy

Perhaps employees today are not as gungho as in the past, but I believe Miss Manners / Emily Post type of books state to never fly in a higher class than your superior.

Luckily for me my boss is EXP himself.

SPN Lifer

When deciding whether to click on a thread, I always find the topic title helpful.

In this case, it is "In Your Face...I'm in Biz/First."

mikel51

My last boss and I used to travel together frequently. At the beginning he was a 1K and I was a 2P. On my first flight as a 1K, we flew from San Francisco-Singapore. Since I requested an upgrade further in advance than him, I had confirmed upgrades prior to reaching the airport, while he was on standby. Luckily he was upgraded and seated next to me on the first leg SFO-NRT. However he was not upgraded from NRT-SIN. To make matters worse, one of the directors of the institute we were visiting was flying on a paid C class ticket and upgraded to first. Of course he was happy to be able to come back to business class to visit us, but my boss lost some face when I was in business and he was in coach. At the time, I didn't trust our mutal assistant to make upgrade requests for me, and therefore I took care of it myself, while the boss let our somewhat incompetent assistant to take care of it.

Anyway, my boss acted noble about the situation, but was POd underneath it all. I vowed never to upgrade myself again while he was in coach. Several times, while we were both standing by for upgrades on international flights, I offered my upgrade seat to him if I cleared and he didn't--of course he declined the offer and luckily it didn't happen again.

Also, we always bought business class tickets to asia after that. I still hesitate to buy business class tickets to europe from san francisco since I always get upgraded and they are exhorbitantly priced.

aisleorwindow

Ok, I edited my post.

Law Lord

My employer holds a retreat for the lawyers every year, usually at a destination too far to drive to. In the scheme of things I'm midlevel -- I'm mostly treated as an owner of the firm (which I'm not), including for retreats, but with status somewhat below the actual owners. One year we were going to (IIRC) Palm Springs. Several of the owner-partners and I were booked on the same non-stop flight on United, all in coach. (The firm doesn't pay for anyone to fly first class.) We got to the airport. No plane was at the gate. It soon became clear to me that there would be no plane at the gate for hours to come. People waited. Before the flight was cancelled, I rounded up two of the owners who were with me and said, "Let's wait upstairs," and took them to the Red Carpet Club. I settled them down with drinks and went to talk to the concierge. She could not get us on any other UA flight to Palm Springs that day but said that Alaska had a flight going to Palm Springs leaving in about an hour, and that coach was full but there were still three seats in first class. I went back to my two employers and asked if I could borrow their tickets. I took our three tickets to the concierge and traded them (with the help of the company credit card) for the three F seats on Alaska, then went back to the employers and said, "We have seats on a plane leaving in an hour," not telling them that we were going to be in F. They were surprised and pleased to see their seats when they got on the plane. Strictly this is not an upgrade story, since I (actually, they) paid for the seats, but it's something that worked out well as we got to the meeting on time and in comfort.

The other upgrade story is from another company retreat, when I had gold status on Alaska. One of the junior lawyers was 6 months pregnant. I used the free-upgrade policy to upgrade her and me at the airport. We (and one owner who understood upgrades) sat in first while eight or ten of the owners and employed lawyers rode in coach. We waved cheerfully as they all got on board after us. My theory was, if you have a talent for getting upgrades, why hide it?

Guyin

I gave my upgraded seat to my boss and I seat on the empty row at
the back

flyatlanta

We couldn't figure out why a summer intern with no status kept flying in F while the rest of the non/low-status workers were sitting in the back of the plane. After the summer, he told us that he always asked the travel department for a seat next to one of the partners on the same flight because they had "important work" to do. Of course, the partners sit in a paid F seat. Unlike many of the other stories in this thread, this innovative summer intern now has a permanent position.

Steve23

So now that I've read all the tales of evil bosses who get mad at you for taking your upgrade, here's one about a guy who may be the best boss ever:

When I started my current job, I had higher CO status than my bosses, so of course got upgraded much more frequently. The thing is, I'm pretty short (5'2"), so I find coach fairly comfortable and feel guilty taking the upgrade away from someone taller on short hauls. Well, on one of my first flights with the new boss, I tried to give him my upgrade. What followed was a long lecture on how we're not a hierarchical firm and I shouldn't feel obligated to give up my seat just because he's more senior. For weeks, he refused to take my upgrade. The situation finally resolved itself when a secretary from our office traveled with us one week, and I offered my upgrade to her. As soon as my boss realized I wasn't offering the seat to him because of his job title, he felt fine taking it from then on.

Another story relevant to this thread:

A series of fortunate coincidences landed me on a business trip with some high-ranking execs from my company (including the head of my division and the head of North America), and being pretty low on the totem pole I was dying to impress them. All of us being frequent travellers, we of course hung out in the main terminal until almost boarding time, and were quite disheartened to find ourselves in an hour-long security line. Luckily, we were at a Delta hub, and I just happened to have my CO Platinum card with me. I flashed it at the agent at the elite line, and then mentioned that "they're all with me" when she tried to stop the execs from following me past the big wait. Boy, the looks on their faces was priceless. I earned some big brownie points with that one.

iCorpRoadie

wow, what a varied response from people. It have been interesting to read what and how people react. WOnder what other things we can pull on bosses

vinnmann

Deleted

jaymay

I had a friend who worked for a European company in the US, and he'd travel over once or twice a year to check in with the home office in Germany. His boss would go with him more often than not.

One time, the boss had an upgrade clear for his TA flight, leaving my buddy in the back. Nowe, the boss knew that they ahd been flying about the same amount, and it turns out that my friend had no clue that he was elite and could upgrade if he asked for it.

So, his boss sat down with him and taught him the basics of being a good FF. What the status meant, the whole deal, how to upgrade. Talk about a good boss.

JabbaJabba

Although an interesting thread I must say that I am very surprised and concerned about alot of people's attitude

This "I've earned it and I don't give a crap if my boss sits in coach" attitude I find quite troublesome. At the end of the day the boss is a colleague which means you should treat him with respect.

I've often declined an upgrade (as we couldn't get upgrades for both) so I could sit together with my colleague or boss. Likewise my boss/colleague would do the same for me.
I'm not saying this is how everyone should do it but I treat my colleagues the way I would treat my friends or my family... with respect. You should try it - it will often "pay off" as you will get the same in return.

Having said that, none of my colleagues or superiors have a problem with sitting in different classes. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we all clock more than a 100K international miles a year and therefore know the drill. But at the end of the day I guess it's all about attitude, company culture, common sense and respect for each other.

If people actually say they are going to quit their jobs if the boss feels uncomfortable about sitting in a different class then that says more about that person than the boss It seems like a lot of people don't like their jobs or their superiors. It certainly sounds quite awful. My advice: Do something about it instead of playing childish games.

Just my opinion - but maybe I am too naive with regards to how things work in the big corporations. But then again I work for a Global 500 company and 50% of my job is politics. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

acysb87

Straight to the point ^ .I agree 100%

Counsellor

Slightly "off-topic" because technically it doesn't involve an upgrade, but maybe an amusing story nonetheless:

A couple years ago my boss, I, and another senior lawyer in our office had to travel to a country around what used to be called "Asia Minor" for an important (to our client) negotiation. We flew Lufthansa, on what was supposed to be a three-day trip.

As it turned out, the negotiations kept getting extended for “one more day” and each day we’d ask the secretary where we were to cancel the current reservations for the first flight out the next day and get us new ones for the first flight the following day. This went on long enough that we were beginning to wonder if we ought to call the hotel we were staying at “The Minnow” (“. . . a three-hour tour . . .”), but finally the negotiations ended and we were “really” to depart the next day.

Now, you must understand that the city we were in, while not exactly Paris or Rome, did have some attractions but by now we were heartily sick of it and looking forward to getting out and back to our offices. Not only had the work had piled up in our absence, but we had only planned for a three-day absence which had now stretched to over a week (not only “planned for,” but also “packed for” . . . you don’t want to know about the underwear situation!).

The next morning we were up at oh-dark-thirty and off to the airport for a departure scheduled for very early in the morning. My traveling companions both had status but with other airlines not in the Star Alliance; I, however, had Senator status with Lufthansa’s Miles and More (and that year was 1K on United as well), so while they went to check in at the Economy counter, I headed for the Business Class counter. When I showed my ticket, the lady behind the counter punched the computer keys for a while, and then looked up worriedly and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Counsellor, but we have no record of a reservation for you on this flight.”

“Well, there should be one,” I said, “but this is a full-fare ticket, can’t you get me on anyway?”

At this she became even more visibly distressed. “I’d love to, sir,” she said, “but we’re overbooked as it is. And the flight this afternoon is also overbooked. The earliest I can assure you a seat would be on tomorrow morning’s flight. However, (she added, seeing that I was rather crestfallen at this news) let me ask the manager if he can do anything.”

She went into the back office, and while she was gone my boss and our other lawyer came up where I was waiting at the counter and related that they were told they didn’t have reservations either, and to come back the next day. What apparently had happened was either that the secretary had forgotten to make the new reservations, or else that she had called in so often for reservations for us that we wound up not taking that the local Lufthansa agent had simply quit entering them into the system -- “Boy who cried ‘wolf’” and all that.

The CSR shortly returned with a distinguished gentleman, who said to me, “I am sorry, but we are quite overbooked and . . . ” at this point he saw my Senator card lying on the counter, “Oh, you’re a Senator! Well, for a Senator I’m sure we can do something,” and he proceeded to talk with the CSR, “Give him a boarding pass (Would you like aisle or window, sir?) and if we have to deny boarding to someone else so be it.”

My boss had an expression like the heavens (or a tunnel to the other place) had just opened, and the manager, noticing this, asked me, “Are they with you?”

“They are,” I confirmed, and he said to the CSR, “Put them on, too. They’re with the Senator.”

The CSR clicked away and sure enough, out came three boarding passes. The manager took them and handed them to us, and then gave me a pass for the Elite lounge run by the national airline of the country we were in, saying, “I’m sorry, we don’t have our own Senator lounge here, but you can use the <such and such> lounge.” Then he looked at my companions, and said, “Here are passes for you as well. After all, you’re with the Senator!”

As we sat in the elite lounge, waiting for boarding call and drinking coffee (although I was seriously thinking of something stronger, considering how close we had come to having to wait an extra day), my boss and the other senior lawyer started commenting, “After all, we’re with the Senator!”

That catchline remained a running joke in the office for over a year, but you know, I didn’t get any more grief about why I was putting miles on a “foreign” airline instead of putting them all on United.

tillicent

If I wanted to get fired on the spot, I'd sit in biz or first when traveling with the boss. Even if I paid for my own ticket, the owner of our company would be irate if I (a manager) were to sit in the same or a higher class than she.

Don't even get me started with the single-class aircraft syndrome - let's just say, no one is happy if mama's not happy.

I don't even let her know when I am able to UG with miles or elite status - I'm just not willing to deal with the unwarranted disapproval rating.