Andy....

Can't give you the exact "in's & out's" on how all the FF/Up-grades work at CAL....but I can tell you one thing.....First Class Upgrades at CAL come much easier (on the WHOLE) than they do at UA.

I have taken UA as a Non-Rev Int'l a few times, have had nothing but Business or better, very nice.....not so at CAL. Upgrades for rev pax seem to be more common thus making Prem Class hard to get as a non-rev.

My brother was traveling on CAL out of LA (on a 'ave' tix he got on CAL's .com), when he checked in at the automated machine, it offered him an Up-Grade on his coach ticket to BizFirst for $100 (and he is not a FF/or status with CAL or any of it's Alliance Partners).

Would like to see the "hard to come by Upgrades" preserve 'some' Prem Class space at least once in a while for non-revs....but just be aware of the 'trend' on CAL's side of the fence being that we'll all be completely 'seamless' soon concerning non-rev travel as one big happy family.