Originally Posted by
ContinentalFan
I agree that there is likely confusion and I think the OP heard an example of such confusion in the call. CO Insider has described how the new upgrade-for-purchase option works, so unless he says anything different, Silver Elite still get priority.
The problem seems to be that what he said would happen and what is actually happening are two different things in a limited number of cases. If non-elites are being offered buy-ups (as reported here) on flights that have elites waitlisted and not clearing then there is a problem with the implementation of the program. Just because CO wants it to work one way doesn't mean that they got the programming on the systems 100% correct from the get-go.