Originally Posted by
chiph
We've all observed it and ostensibly understand the reasoning. However, sometimes it seems a little ridiculous. For example, I'm on a flight on Thursday morning (<2 days from now) that has 14 seats open in F and only 9 people seated in the elite area. Yes, several rows of "OOO-OOO" on the pda site. It's literally wide open.
It seems counter to the whole notion that pplat UGs will start to clear at 6 days. Why not just say the entire thing happens at the 36h mark and is run by status? I don't understand why they bother with the whole 6, 5, 3, and 1 day thing if it rarely works.
This is not a complaint about the likelihood of upgrades -- I have a very high success rate and am completely satisfied. I just don't understand the whole "EUA window" notion when seats are held back for so long now.
It's the old principle of the carrot and the stick. They need something to entice you ("the carrot") and they do this with the lure of "unlimited free space-available upgrades." Of course, then, once they've hooked you, they apply the kibosh ("the stick"). Since the availability of inventory is all basically a fiction, the man behind the green curtain can do whatever he wants to make the most money for himself and the company.
If they were more straightforward about it, the "carrot" part of the game would not be nearly as effective...