Originally Posted by
mgcsinc
Is the use of 500s comparable to getting a CPU? (I ask out of sheer ignorance -- I haven't been in the game long enough to understand just how free-flowing the 500s were.)
They were limited in that you earned 4 per 10k miles flown, or could buy them in sets of 4 (at a slight discount for elites). You also occasionally got them for minor compensation (instead of $-off e-certs, etc.). The upside to this limitation was that only pax who really wanted an upgrade tried for a given flight (via E-500, SWU/GPU, CR-1/RPU, or miles), which meant less competition on many flights.