Originally Posted by
fastair
You keep saying "ahead of elites". Am I wrong when I say that isn't the way, but service fee paying customers, regardless of if elite or not, before non-service charge paying customers. So revenue before free. Isn't that the argument? Is there a prohibition that would prevent a gold member from getting the seat if they are willing to pay what the general members pay?
Sortof.
Elites (at least gold and above) don't pay at all.
The concern being raised is that all the non-elites (or silvers) are going to be buying all the ELR seats before the elites buying last minute seats will be. So by the time an elite goes to book there won't be any seats worth sitting in left on the plane. UA has more "good" seats but still has elites in middle seats in the back from time to time, for example. Of course, no one knows if that is due to selling the E+ to non-elites for too little money in advance or just because there are a lot of elites on the flights, but that's a different can of worms.