All of the above assumes that UA executive management wants to improve customer access to this info. A fairer reading is that some bean-counter realized that UA elites could use the data to extract value from their upgrade instruments, thereby "cheating" UA out of revenue it could otherwise have earned through selling cash upgrades. (Of course, thinking this way involves completely breaking the value proposition for these instruments, and thus substantially impairing the benefits the upper-elite elite levels necessary to earn them. But hey, it's free money in the short term, so go for it!)

If the truth-in-advertising laws had any teeth, they'd have to give this outfit a new name: BOHICA Airlines.