Sniping an upgrade seat is equivalent to jumping a box office que and getting the last good seat at popular broadway show, manipulating the system to get a ticket for nothing is equivalent to sneaking in the back door of the theater at an unguarded moment to see the show.
Nicely done.
A good analogy on FT is like the Doomsday device to Dr Strangelove..
I think Im going to use this event as an ethical dilemma test during interviews