Using my wife's eligibility to upgrade to iPhone 5

[sjtm2007]

ATT, I have a 4s and she has a 4. She doesn't
want to upgrade but would be fine if I did, using her eligibility. I can order the phone (I'm the account manager of our family plan) but when it arrives I don't think I can switch the sim if it's a new micro sim. Can I then call ATT and switch the phone to me?

 

[jav6454]

Call AT&T.

 

[Jman13]

ATT, I have a 4s and she has a 4. She doesn't
want to upgrade but would be fine if I did, using her eligibility. I can order the phone (I'm the account manager of our family plan) but when it arrives I don't think I can switch the sim if it's a new micro sim. Can I then call ATT and switch the phone to me?

Yup...you should even be able to go get a new sim card ahead of time (after your preorder. Just go into an AT&T store ahead of time and say you're doing an upgrade swap, and they may be able to give you the nanosim with your number on it right there.

I haven't done an upgrade swap before (but am in the same boat as you and may get the 5)...but when I upgraded to the 4S and she got my old 4, (ditching her 3Gs), we were able to get a microSim with her number on it...then I activated my 4S, and simply called AT&T to make sure they switched my phone to her number in their system...then I was able to activate the new Sim in her phone for the 4. I'd imagine it will work similarly, though I believe you might need to activate the 5 on her number first, then talk to AT&T about finalizing the upgrade swap. Worst case scenario is you activate the phone on her number, then bring both phones in and have them swap the phones in the account, which they can do right there in person.

I did that once when I first got the 4...I had a 3Gs and my boss got a new phone, but was OK with a 3Gs, but knew I wanted the 4...so she got the 4, and gave me her 4 and I gave her my 3Gs (for free...nice boss). AT&T had our phones swapped on our accounts and me with a new Sim within about 10-15 minutes, and my boss and aren't obviously on the same account.