All,
I have read all the comments and thanks for the points; they are all valid and I do not have a sense of entitlement because I have kids. The issue with preboarding is that the GA allowed a parent who was neither a GS or First class and without wheel chair board ahead of all. Now that passenger could be a crew member traveling with her kid. That's the only possibility I can think of.

Regarding the upgrade: All the upgrades had cleared completely waiting for e-certs to be pulled. Three of us had to be downgraded from First as the agent thought I needed 18 e-cert vs. 15.

At both occasions I did try to reason and discuss with the TA and GA respectively, but to no avail.

I am like most of you who fly UA and have a nice feeling at the back of my mind when I am getting board and mentally calculating RDM/EQMs to be earned.

Peace