I'm just stating fact - if an airline reduces its capacity, there will be fewer first class seats. Why is that a "shill"? Care to post the article you mentioned reporting higher percentage free upgrades on Delta or American? when I read the AA forum, I see a lot of "an upgrade out of so-and-so used to be a no-brainer for an EXP...", but if you have the statistics, I'd sure like to see them. If an airline is giving more upgrades, that certainly doesn't mean they're running more efficient airlines, does it? I can almost guarantee you once AA and US merge and reduce capacity, there will be fewer available free upogrades too.