Gov't travelers or not shouldn't be the big issue. ANY medallion that buys a Y fare, whether its a Silver/Gold/Platinum/Diamond on a Y-based fare (whether that is a discounted corporate fare, YCA, etc) will be auto upgraded at booking should the availability there in advance of a higher elite member on a lower fare basis.

This is no different than the policy that UA, previously CO had in place for years. And people were jumping up and down screaming how gov't fares are cheap, how dare those travelers take our upgrades, all of the IAD F cabins are full of gov't flyers etc. Well then sequestration happened and guess what? The upgrade rates didn't improve even though there was a moratorium on travel and few if any gov't travel flyers were booking flights.

And before everyone says about the image it conveys consider the following: 1) the gov't is a business and this is no different than corporate negotiated fares, 2) YCA fares are not cheap and in most cases travel officers require booking on the non YCA fares which are sometimes half the cost and more restrictive so the instances of YCA are grossly exaggerated (since most pax don't even know about the benefit let alone just choosing cheapest fare), 3) Maybe the Diamond on the ultra cheap fare should understand FCM which until people either buy First or higher fares, then Silvers on a Y will trump a Diamond. I've been 1K on UA and ran into the issue of getting passed over, and I've been Silver/Gold on UA and DL and booked on Y fares and got the upgrade. So I've had to deal with it both ways

So again is the issue just because its easier to point the finger at the gov't flyers (not considering corp travel) and really someone is just pissed because DL, AA, and UA all give priority to Y fares regardless of gov't, corp, bulk, etc??