I'm a new Silver and flew this last week for the first time as Silver from PDX to FLL. On the outbound, I was upgraded to MCS 12 hours before the flight as expected. On the return, I wasn't upgraded on any of the three flights I took that day. At the airport for my first flight at FLL, the agent said she'd put me on the upgrade list. That was nice but I would have thought I'd have been put on the list automatically. I didn't get it because MCS was full. At the LAX service counter, they put me on the upgrade list again - apparently I wasn't already on the list. The agent told me there were no upgrades - the flight was completely full. On board during the flight, I saw that three MCS seats were empty and the plane wasn't close to full. In SFO, I asked the gate agent if I was on the upgrade list. She told me MCS row 10 was empty and I could have whatever I want. I got the impression that if I didn't ask for the upgrade, I wouldn't get it. I don't understand why the Elevate upgrade system is set up this way. Why leave MCS seats empty when you've got Gold or Silvers on board? And why do you have to keep going to the gate agents to ask? That's not convenient or pleasant if there's a line. If this is status at Virgin, it doesn't seem worth it.