Last night, I checked in for my flight and as usual, my husband and I were not seated together) but we were seated in first class!!! We did not ask for this nor did we pay for this. When I went to select an alternate seat, the only other available seats were in first class! I did manage to get us two seats together.

What should I expect at the airport? Will they take our miles away or ask for money? Rearrange our seats? First class would be lovely of course (I have never been in first class before, or even business class) but I do not want to pay for it (with $ or miles)!

Sometimes this happens when economy is over-sold. Don't complain and don't make an issue of it. Also don't feel too put out if something changes between now and when you get to the airport.

They won't take away any miles or charge you extra; in fact they <i>may</i> waive any checked-luggage fees at the airport.

Which airline, what route, when?

Wow- how cool! Please post back & let us know how it goes!

This happened to me back in the days of paper tickets. I booked an award ticket to/from Greece in coach. This involved a layover in London each way. Evidently someone at BA made a typo on the return ticket and put me in biz class for the flight from London to Dallas. I later discovered they coded it as a paid biz class ticket when in fact it was supposed to be a free award ticket in coach. I did not complain and there were no consequences later. If it is their mistake they cannot punish you for that after the fact so consider this a gift and keep your mouth shut.

Enjoy your flight.

So, we ended up in first class. It was continental flight from mexico city to Newark. The flight was not oversold - in fact there were lots of empty seats. They didn't charge us anything. Seats were super comfy. There was direct tv but that might have been available in coach.

The only thing we could think of is that we earned silver elite status on our way to Mexico so maybe this was a thank you?

<i>The only thing we could think of is that we earned silver elite status on our way to Mexico so maybe this was a thank you?</i>

Read up on the elite upgrades program:
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US.../upgrades.aspx

Continental and United have similar programs, and the benefits now extend to elite members of both programs.

You were upgraded as a OnePass silver elite via the EUA (Elite Upgrade Automation) process. If there is a reward seat available in first and no one with higher status you as silver get the upgrade at 24 hours prior to the flight. Higher status (gold, platinum or Presidential platinum) also get this perk, the time in advance of departure increasing with status.
Sounds like you lucked out and were on a sparsely sold flight - congrats, it does not happen often, especially on flights to/from hubs like Newark where there are a lot of high status elites. And there is DirectTV in coach, but there is a charge.

Good for you!

You are absolutely entitled to it. That's one of the main perks of being elite! CO is very careful not to leave FC seats empty when there are elites in the back. [This does not apply to BusinessFirst markets.]