Sometimes you don't get 'em, most often you do

Upgrades, that is. After last Monday's banishment to the back of the bus I was afraid that my upgrade luck had finally run its course, especially when Business Class inventory dropped from 8 to 0 within hours last night for my flight to San Juan in about an hour. And then, just to add insult to injury, American woke me up this morning at 5:20 a.m. to tell me that my 10:20 a.m. flight out of LBB had been cancelled—but I had been rescheduled for the 9:10 a.m.! Since ExpertFlyer showed zero Biz availability for the flight to Puerto Rico, I was prepared to spend another sweltering afternoon amongst the non-deserving masses, headed by the Kettle family. (If you think this is thick, go to FlyerTalk.com and check out the un-apologetically elitist views there!)

It seems the 10:20 a.m. wasn't canceled, after all—just smaller equipment. So they woke me up at 5:20 a.m. to tell me that I had to get to the airport an hour earlier than planned. Oh, the injustice of it all! I was already planning my totally reasonable complaint to AA while, at the same time, I continued to languish in pre-anticipatory upgrade hell.

Well, all my misery came to an abrupt end when I went to one of the AAngels (common moniker for the savants in the Admirals Club) to grab another drink chit for a Sierra Nevada draft. I asked her to check on my upgrade request (numero uno on the airport list since this morning). Well, guess what? Revenue Management had mercy on me and put me up front. Yeah! It may be bulkhead (yikes!), but my world has been restored to its normal orbit, and I will try to calculate my 2011 upgrade percentage while sipping my first G&T.

How does electronics manufacturer LG advertise? LG: Life's Good.

Jürgen