Ask, and one may receive... with persistence

I'm going to Japan in a week's time, flying on Northwest. My employer (NASA) only pays for a coach seat, but I have nearly a million frequent-flyer miles (with Continental). So I've spent two hours today, mostly on hold, talking to airlines... CO was willing, but said that NW wouldn't upgrade government/military fares, even straight Y-fares. Rather than take no for an answer, I called NW, chatted-up an agent with NASA stories and spent another 45 minutes on hold while he wrangled on my behalf with successive layers of supervisors, and they discovered that there was a waiver in effect though June 30 that would allow me to upgrade -- then they called CO, who told them (NW) that CO couldn't issue the upgrade *because NW didn't allow it on government or military fares*. The Northwest agent apologized to me and suggested that I try using my few NW miles, buying the difference. Critically, he documented the waiver in my reservation record, so CO could see it. I then tried one more time with CO, being perkly and pleasant to the agent and simplifying: " you guys were willing to issue, but Northwest couldn't do it because it was a government fare. But I called Northwest and they have a waiver in effect, look, it's documented in my record." The CO agent went away for another twenty minutes, and her supervisor approved it and issued the change. One more call to NW for seating assignments (I like the upper-deck seats on 747s) and it was done, just the way I wanted it. (smile)