Covenant
O.K NOW I see your point! To tell you the truth Covenant in my company as I said it boils down to wether it is justified and a report must be written. There have been many occasions where I have upgraded passengers just on the pure fact that they are nice to the crew and other times Ive upgraded because they are fellow collegues. Lets face it we all like to extent our collegues a nicer ride.(this is all done obviously on the sly). Yet unfortunately it is some of our crew members on the flight who would like to be promoted a bit quicker than the rest that report these upgrades to our superiors. I personally know a few Pursers who have been ratted on and now refuse to give ANYONE a free upgrade.One bitten twice shy hey.
As for different airline policies I can only tell you our one which I outlined to you before. Fair enough as you said if there is enough catering why not. But airines for some reason dont see it that way.
Look I know what its like when i travel with my wife and she is in a different class than me. What I tend to do in these kind of situation is explain to the cabin staff that I will downgrade myself in order to sit with her. Every single time they have been nice enough to say "dont do that, we will bring her up here". Im not saying i do this as a trick but crew a very sympathetic to legitimate reason and will help wherever they can (as long as your nice to them).
I hope i have filled in some gaps to some of your questions and maybe given you a tip on your next flight.
Enjoy