I believe he's referring to a making a second transaction using the inputs of the inadequate fee one (no confirmations), and attaching a large(r) fee to this second transaction in order to get the first one confirmed faster. Which I could have sworn was part of bitcoind's default behavior...
I think you're right, I thought there was some allowance for that in there as well, but it might not be supported by the particular wallet. I don't fuss with it, I pay the fee and hope that some of it comes back my way in the mining process later
Kick the leprechaun today and hope for gold tomorrow