I must have been very lucky or maybe the rules changed but around Christmas I jumpseated out of EWR to Oslo and 3 weeks later jumped out of Stockholm back to EWR. On both flights they moved me up to the business class (or is it business first?); the pilots and the FAs were super friendly... On the flight back to EWR I got coach at first but 10 minutes or so after take off the lead FA came up and quietly told me to take an empty seat in business class - she said the captain requested that. I didn’t expect being upgraded but it was a nice surprise, great service for sure…Your friend is SOL. I've never ridden in BF and I work here.