Hmm as AA gold dont you have to buy certain fares in order to be able to upgrade PLUS pay $30 per 500 miles or something like that? With AS MVP can be upgraded at 48 hours if seats are available for upgrade, on any fare at alaskaair.com from hot deals to full flex. There are a few exceptions like awards and the AS25
As an AA Gold you get 4x500 electronic upgrade coupons for every 10,000 miles you fly. If you fly from PDX-ORD you have to use 4 coupons to upgrade in one direction. If you fly less than 50,000 a year (which you would, if you were Gold), you get something like 2 round trip mid-con upgrades per year. As far as upgrades are concerned, much, much worse than what you get for MVP.
ederemer:
It depends on how frequently you'll be flying between SEA and SJC, if you're flying 4 times a month over the next 6 months, I'd imagine having a shot at sitting up front every flight would make the switch worthwhile. If you're only doing it once a month, maybe it's not worth it. Others can speak to how difficult it is to get access to partner awards, though in theory at least the inability to combine partners makes redemption a bit trickier.