Have been flying all my life, and have only been upgraded once! Imagine my surprise this past May, when boarding our flight home from Heathrow to Baltimore, on British Airways, (booked through vayama.com....dirt cheap!), and realizing we were in their business class seats. I actually checked with the flight attendant to make sure they were the correct seats....which seemed to amuse her greatly! : )

How wonderful! Those transatlantic flights are so long and tiring, and this made such a difference. Oh, to be able to afford to get these seats all the time! Maybe in my next life.... Sigh....

My mother and I checked in at the British Airways desk in Chicago for a flight to London. Without even asking we were upgraded to "business" class which I consider first class. We were able to sleep on the flight overseas with NO problem in our reclining "dental" type chairs and pampered wonderfully with freebies. This was an experience we've never forgotten and always valued!!!

My company had me flying back and forth from Heathrow to Toronto a number of times, one summer. In the middle of this, I suffered a family tragedy. The company was very understanding and as soon as I was able to return to schedule, they booked me on the next available British Airways flight. But they had to buy me a Club class seat as economy was full that day. Whoopee! However, when I got to Heathrow, the girl appologised and said that Club class was full ......... would I mind if they put me in First? Hahahahahahahahah!!! B.A. 1st class Heathrow to Toronto was the best flight I have EVER made!!!

The Concorde!! I was 22, my sister 18 and we were flying to Paris for Christmas. Air France called to say our flight had been cancelled, but that as a "Christmas present" they were putting us on the Concorde instead. I actually told the agent I had to think about it because this would have required us to leave a day earlier and I didn't have hotel reservations for the day we'd land. In his ultra French accent, he said, "Madame, this is a very generous offer. I suggest you take it." Duh!!! Of course we did! Wow! Only bummer was the loooong flight home on the regular old plane in coach class!

WOW BarbMH! That was SOME experience.

My nephew and his fiance were traveling from Boston to Krakow on Lufthansa. They were going to her home town to be married.

At the airport, the flight was overbooked and they were offered something like $600 each plus confirmed business class seats for the next day (might have been a hotel and meal voucher in the deal).

Next day, the flight was overbooked again and they were offered the same deal. She won and they declined the offer.

Only once on a paid ticket, from Heathrow to Dulles on United. The check in lady asked me if I would mind changing my seat, I said no, as long as it was another aisle. Imagine my surprise when I found myself in Economy Plus, not only did I have an aisle seat I had a whole row to myself which was a bigger plus than the slightly larger seats.

Other times were to first class or business class but that is when I worked for the airlines. About the only thing I miss from that job!

Went to Irleand in 2006 i picked out seats on line before going much to my surprise on the flight home i had picked out a first class seat.

Another time i was living in the Bahamas and had to fly home to SC and when i checked in going back in SC the girl at the ticket stand fell in love with my little shih tzu said she had one and i was flying threw Atlanta and her friend there also had one shesaid when i got there he would take care of my flight for me she made a call to him about my dog ,First class again! Not bad when i paid for coach,I leave for Italy next week hope i get lucky again

On the way back from Thailand on Air Singapore, they had oversold the seats. They had to split up two of four of us. Two got to stay in economy in different parts of the plane. We soon fixed that by asking someone to switch with us. Our 10 and 7 year old got to fly first class all the way home to Canada. They played video games, watched movies, and were completely spoiled rotten by the flight attendants. They will never forget it~!

Both of these were many years ago.

On my first trip to Europe, I was among the last to check in and Iberia has overbooked the coach cabin. I was upgraded to First Class! My first trans-Atlantic flight!
(It's been all downhill from there!!)


Flying from Kathmandu to Delhi, long, long time ago, the Indian Airlines plane was sold out. Fortunately, my Dad was able to make a deal with the pilot: He would buy a litre of Johnny Walker Black for him (there were many alcohol restrictions in India back then) and we would get seats on the plane.

I ended up in the co-pilot's seat (great views of the Himalayas' not sure where the co-pilot sat, or if there even was one) and my dad got one of those pull-down seats used for the crew.

We became friendly with this pilot and his family and visited them in India and hosted them in the US several times after that.

Obviously this kind of thing would never happen today!

I have been fortunate to be a part of Operation Smile for many years. On my first mission to Cali, Colombia I checked in to the airport in my hometown, Columbus, Ohio and the counter attendant asked me, "Why in God's name; are you going to Cali, Colombia?". I told her I was going to work on a medical mission for cleft lip and palate patients and I would be working in the recovery room there.
After I checked in, I wandered around the airport waiting for the rest of my team when I heard my name called overhead. I returned to the airline desk, hoping there was no problem with my flight. As I approached the desk, all of the attendants were clapping. I was kind of confused, had I won a lottery or something? I asked why I was called and the nice lady said,
"After you walked away from the desk, we all decided we wanted you to start your difficult journey out with some creature comforts......so we upgraded you to first class!"
WOW! I had never flown first class before and it is ALL that and more.
A girl could get used to it.
It really did start the trip off with a good memory and, even though the trip was difficult, it was very memorable also. So much so that I have gone on several missions since then.
Regards,
S

We used our FF miles to buy me a ticket to Buenos Aires on Delta. The flight down was in coach. After a wonderful two week stay we were overly tired for our flight home and arguing in the airport after check-in. We didn't even notice our seat numbers until we were getting ready to board. Imagine our surprise to see 1A and 1B. I was sure there was some mistake and refused to get comfortable until the flight attendant said, "Mr. and Mrs. have you made your selection from the menu?" At that point I settled in for a great flight! When we arrived in Atlanta our next leg was DH in seat 1A again and me in 34B. We went up to talk to the desk and she said she was sorry, but since my flight had been free there was no way to upgrade me. It felt great to tell her that they just accidentally had!

Wow, the Concorde! i think that trumps all the stories. When I was an Elite (or whatever NW called it then), Continental was a NW partner and would upgrade me to First without my even asking. Ah, it was marvelous! i have never flown business or first overseas though. that is one of my goals in life!!!

I was flying non-rev stand-by on TWA the day before the Air Traffic Controllers strike, trying to return home (18y.o.). We got the last two seats in coach and were relieved, until the Stewardess called our names to come to the front, with any carry-on luggage. As we approached with our heads down in despair, the two business men taking our seats were extremely excited . . . until the stewardess notified us, in front of the paying customers, that we just got upgraded to first-class!

We heard that it was the last flight out of Colorada Springs before the strike. That was the good news. The bad news was that we had to connect out of O'Hare to MCI, where, as stand-by's, we were stranded for 37 hours and finally caught the last flight of our second day in O'Hare.

Oh, I must have forgotten, also got bumped on my honeymoon flight to Florida to 1st, the plane was nearly empty, except us, and three families with three kids each. The oldes kid was 8. Enough said.

Years ago, my husband and our two young sons flew on Pan Am (economy) for vacation in California. I had arranged seating in the four middle seats outbound (at night) so the kids could sleep; return flight I had booked seats by the windows (day time). Return flight was screwed up by wildcat strike in Paris, which was settled before we boarded our return flight from LAX to Dulles. My husband, unawares of my seating arrangements, had rearranged the seats to place us in the middle of the plane on the return, but Pan Am had changed the type of plane, so we were without seats upon boarding. They bumped us up to business class where we were fed unlimited fresh strawberries much to my older son's delight. Both kids were later disappointed when I explained the economics of why we would not be taking every vacation in business or first class.

My best - and only - upgrade was on an Alitalia flight from Milan to NY about 4 years ago. The flight was overbooked and I was one of 8 lucky passengers to get upgraded to business class. It was really wonderful.

The plane was new with beautiful soft gray leather seats and buttons to adjust to every possible position. The seats reclined fully, but there was no way I was going to sleep and miss any of the luxury!

The meals were delicious, and we got unlimited fine wines, liqueurs and snacks available throughout the flight. It was very nice.
I still have my boarding pass.

Many years ago I declined an opportunity to upgrade to first class, also on Alitalia, Rome to NY, b/c it came "with a price".

The flight was delayed and while waiting near the boarding gate an annoying guy was trying to pick me up. At the same time he was lobbying the gate agent to upgrade him to first class, and to put me next to him. The agent finally gave him the upgrade and asked me if I wanted to go along.
I politely declined and the agent smiled knowingly.

It worked outjust fine b/c I had two seats to myself in coach and was very comfortable, and free from annoyance for 8+ hours!

When we went to check in at Virgin Atlantic for our flight to London , the agent asked us if this was our virgin( first time on Virgin) flight? She upgraded us to First Class, flat beds, massage, the works from our economy seats.

Mine is on Delta Airlines from LAX to Orlando (MCO)

I had selected my seat in advance, I think the second row in economy/coach, the "C" aisle seat. I was just barely settling in and a gentleman passenger walks up to me and tells me his family has the seats next to me and would I take his first class row 5, aisle seat. Of course I said YES

Flying back to SFO from Guadalajara on Mexicana about ten years ago: We had been traveling in Mexico for a few weeks with our teen-age daughter and two of her friends. The other two girls' mother had reserved their coach seats and requested special meals for them ahead of time, but my husband and daughter and I had not.

When we got up to the counter, I was joking around with the agent in my barely passable Spanish, and he mentioned that the flight was oversold in coach and asked if all five of us would like to be upgraded to First Class.

Of course we said YES, but as it turned out, because the two girls had made the special meal requests, they had to stay in coach, while our daughter and my husband and I were moved up.

Oh well, a lesson learned. I never make meal requests ahead of time --- it guarantees that you will not have a chance to be upgraded.