Last year I was bringing my 86 year old mother from Tampa to Chgo for a visit. I went to the desk to confirm our seats in coach. The attendant smiled at me and my mother and handed me two first class tickets! Anyone who has traveled with an older person knows how difficult the trip can be and this act of kindness has been retold many times. Thank you American Airlines.

I've been lucky enough to fly business or first several times using miles, but my favorite upgrade occurred pre 9-11 when my husband and I were flying back to California after the holidays. We were on separate AA flights, but we were both going to be in Dallas at approximately the same time. We each were traveling with a dog. When Bella and I arrived in Dallas, I hurried to the gate where Jerry's flight was. It was almost finished boarding, and I asked if by chance they had room for one more passenger. They did. I said "My husband is flying in first class on this flight; would it be possible for me to get an upgrade so we can sit together?"

No problem. I walked on the plane, went to his seat, and said "Excuse me, I think I'm sitting next to you." The look on his face was priceless, and the flight attendants doted on Darcy and Bella throughout the flight.

I was burnt out and had quit my job to move to Vietnam. First I had to fly from Honolulu to Miami for a 3-day medical consult, during which time Continental lost my luggage.

At checkin for my return flight, I saw the name 'Lien' on the agent's badge and asked if he was Vietnamese. He was surprised (I'm not Vietnamese) and asked how I knew. I told him I was learning Vietnamese because I was moving to Vietnam to work with orphanages.

His jaw dropped and he said, 'I grew up in an orphanage in Hue! My dad was a U.S. Marine and he adopted me and my brothers and sisters and brought us to America!'

Then he asked who was paying me to go to Vietnam. Strange question. I said I was going on my own.

He gave me my boarding passes and now my jaw dropped. He said, 'You're paying your own way to go to Vietnam to work with orphanages. I'm upgrading you to first class.'

Thank you, Lien!

I've had some great luck with op-ups (operational upgrades), so it's hard to pick "the best". Here are a few:

- An op-up from Business Class to First on Cathay Pacific on my way home from Hong Kong to Toronto (a very long flight) just after the SARs scare started. In fact, I got the news about SARs on the flight to Hong Kong (too late to get off the plane). I think that the Cathay was moving people from Economy to Business and from Business to First to create a little more space in Eco - and I lucked out with a First Class seat for about 15 hours. It was such a luxurious experience, with great food and service. I didn't want to get off the plane.

- I got a quasi-double op-up once on a flight from London to Toronto. I call it a quasi-double op-up because the op-up from Premium Economy on BA to Business was a true upgrade. I was then moved from the Business Class cabin to the First cabin; however, the flight was being serviced as a 3-class plane (so it was business class service but in First class seats).

- My husband and I had to fly home suddenly from Paris to Vancouver a few years ago to see my mother, who had just been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and then had a stroke. There was only one Premium Economy seat available for purchase, but I was able to get a Business Class reward seat as well, so I took the PE seat and my husband took the Bus seat. It wasn't a complete surprise to get the op-up to business class (because PE was full), but it was nice to fly home in the same cabin in a peaceful comfortable space (on the upper deck).

- More recently, my husband and I were upgraded in both directions on a Cathay flight from New York to Vancouver. Those op-ups came as a complete surprise because we were flying on super-cheap tickets. We were on our way to (and then back from) a rather arduous and not very luxurious mountain holiday, so business class was a treat. I think of that trip as my last op-up hurrah, because I dropped down from BA Exec Club Gold to Silver a few weeks later. I doubt that I'll be getting many op-ups in the future, because I'm not a frequent flyer with elite status anymore.

I was upgraded from Business to First on FF tickets years ago. Very nice (Happened twice now that I think about it)

My "favorite" upgrade was the time I got on the plane to find a man in my seat on the CDG to ATL flight. Mr "jerk"
proceeded to YELL at EVERYONE about how much money he spent with the airline, his "elite" level, how much this ticket cost and on and on and on... while I just stood there trying to stay out of the line of fire. Flight Attendant returns, hands me a new boarding pass and quickly points at the seat... I got the point and kept my mouth shut as I went to my new seat in Business If HALF of what Mr. Jerk said was true he should have had the upgrade. (I was on some super cheap fare which is the only reason I had made the trip!)

On our honeymoon coming back from Tahiti, we were upgraded to first. We thought "wow what a treat" until a contingent of Tahitian postmen got on with us. We were the only non-postmen in first, and they proceeded to party hearty. They drank every drop of alcohol on the plane before we got to Los Angeles. When we started our descent for landing, splits of champagne rolled down the aisles and they did a wild native chant as we touched down. Very noisy, funny and memorable. And definitely not the usual first class experience!

I took an 8 day trip from San Francisco to Ireland, half in Galway then train to Dublin then return out of Dublin, after completing a harrowing grad school experience and being completely depleted physically and emotionally.

At the airport for the return, after checking in I heard my name over the loudspeaker, and thought, "oh no!". The nice gentleman from Delta handed me a new boarding pass. I realized it was business class and actually said, I think there's been some mistake. He said no ma'am, that's your seat. I knew enough to keep quiet at that point. It was of course a wonderful flight! They treated me just like the "regular" business pax. I imagine my being a solo traveler helped if they were,say, seating a family in economy; I can't think of any other reason (no status with the airline at that point).

I don't even recall the US transfer city where I picked up the SFO flight; I just remember how completely unexpected and rewarding the transatlantic flight was.

Flying from Lima to Newark this past June on Continental - it was an overnight flight and the plane was full. The guy next to me had a minor medical emergency - basically he took an Ambien for the first time on the flight and freaked out when he started to feel the effects.

They had to move me so they could attend to him and the only open seats were in first. So I was moved from an extremely cramped 3-3 configuration to a hugely spacious fully reclining seat in first. Within 2 minutes of moving my seat I had that baby completely flat and was snoozing away.

It was the best international flight I've ever had or probably will ever have, as I'd rather use miles to get a free seat in economy than use them to upgrade and paying for the seat is out of the question. I fully enjoyed it.

Oh darnit all. I thought Katie_H was back!

suze--funny, so did i!

Great flight on an unnamed airline from an unnamed place to Paris, continuing on to London. I had already been upgraded (NRPS) into the highest class of service by a very high level airline staffer.

A couple of hours from landing the pilot sought me out and invited me to the cockpit jumpseat for the last part of the flight into Paris and then on to London after the aircraft got services.

The staffer knew I was a commercial pilot myself (but not the big jets) and had made the arrangements.

Back in the days of paper tickets British Airways made a typo and put me in class J, which is biz class. They only did this on the return so I had no idea until the day I checked in for my flight home.

A few years later I was on another British Airways flight where an engine caught fire upon take-off. Smoke filled the cabin and scared the living hell out of us. We made an emergency landing and evacuated on the slides. I took a later flight and was upgraded, then upgraded again on the way home.

A year after that I took another trip with BA and they upgraded me again, after I just happened to mention being on the flight from last year when the engine caught fire.

I just realized this was originally posted 2 years ago.

I know this thread was started two years ago, but in response to BarbMH's comment about the Concorde, I know exactly what you mean about flying in a "regular old plane", bummer after flying the Concorde even if you're seated in Business or First.

As for upgrades, yes I've been upgraded a few times on long haul flights and shorter flights.

My best upgrade was actually a double upgrade going from Paris to ORD on AA.

I was initially upgraded at the counter to Biz class. The seat next to me was empty. Once I was on board, and had opened my goodie pkq, the flight attendant needed 2 seats to upgrade someone from economy.

I was traveling alone on business and they had 1 seat in First available. I was put in First to accomodate the couple to Biz. Ended up with 2 goodie packages and a newly remodeled Fisrt class.

I think that was the time I drank First class out of all their Veuve Cliquot Grande Dame. Worked for me.

We were offered 1st class from econ on BA from Dubai (I think) to Delhi. Took it in a heartbeat.

I forgot another good one. The two of us, plus 7 other passengers, were the only occupants of business class on a three-class Malaysia Air flight from KUL to DPS. First class was empty.

They upgraded all 9 of us ... just pick any seat!

Still had the business class meal, amenities, and so on, as that's what was loaded. But what a nice gesture, and PR move, to do so.

Two real upgrades so far:

One on my birthday (not sure if that had something to do with it) on KLM from Amsterdam to L.A. I was taking my mom to show her California, and she got a very wrong first impression of intercontinental flights LOL

The second one two months ago on my way back from Charlotte to Munich. I had started my trip from a small NC airport. At the gate in Charlotte, they could not issue my boarding pass for the transatlantic leg. After an hour I finally got a BP for the rear end of the economy cabin. I was happy that I got on that flight. Half an hour later, I got called again to the desk. The agent took my BP (oh no!), and gave me one instead for business class (YES!).

Nevertheless, THE best upgrade was on a short 1hr hop from Frankfurt to Berlin. At FRA all computer systems had broken down, on a friday afternoon! It was a total zoo to get a BP or on a flight. Finally, me and the co-workers I was traveling with got seats and boarding passes. But when I got to my seat, there was someone already sitting there. Both of us had the same seat assignment. So I was standing there in the plane, 200something people staring at me, the total loser who would need to spend the night at the airport. But then the FA came back again and asked me (quite loudly) if I wanted to fly in the cockpit. And some 50 passengers who could hear that went "WOOOW!". It was the best flight ever, and the captain and FO spent quite some time explaining what they were doing. We went through pretty rough weather and major storms. My co-workers later told me that half of the people were using the airsickness bags, while me in the "front seat" barely noticed the turbulences.

My husband, I, and our 5 and 7 yr old daughters were flying LAX to London. Our ticket had been purchased by a large corportation as a gift, so our daughters were on a separate ticket.

An agent came up to us as we boarded and offered my husband and me first class upgrades. I pointed out our girls and asked if husband sit up front with older daughter?

The woman checked her computer and put us all up front. ( i don't think it hurt that our daughters were dressed adorably cute in matching coats and berets and were being unnaturally well behaved at that moment).

11 hours of first class was nice enough, but the best part was that first class arrival at 5 AM at Heathrow included a FREE airport hotel room till noon, then a limo ride into our London Hotel!

Last year I went to Australia and used miles on United to purchase a roundtrip saver business class ticket. On the way home from Sydney, I was going to SFO and the LAX flight leaving around the same time was cancelled so you can imagine all of the LAX passengers trying to get onto the flight to SFO. I was called to the podium and was asked for my boarding pass and if I was traveling alone, at first thought I was somehow being bumped off the flight. But, to my delight, I was handed a new boarding pass in first class. Full flat bed for 14 or so hours. Best flight I have ever taken!