Tell me about it. For those of you unfamiliar with AA seat maps, the 15 orange seats are empty and the one grey seat is taken. The one grey seat is not me.

A reader wrote in to ask:

"Do you have to use 500 mile coupons for every upgrade?"

As an American Airlines Aadvantage Gold (GLD) or Platinum (PLT) member you need 500 mile upgrade coupons (more affectionately known as "stickers" from the days when they were actually stickers applied to your paper ticket) for most domestic upgrades. The exception being full fare tickets booked into Y or B class. International upgrades require miles and are subject of ...