Originally Posted by
DeadHead
Giving away first class seats for free doesn't really help business either. Not really fair for one passenger to pay a premium for a first class seat while another passenger gets it for free.
Also, how would a gate agent determine which passengers get the upgrade and which don't. Anyway you look at it, it equates to more headaches and workload for customer service agents.
Also, if you give away upgrades to revenue pax by some formula such as earliest check-in you will wind up bringing the ghetto or the trailer park into first class. The real paying 1C pax would not appreciate that.
The nonrevs at least will dress and behave accordingly.