MikeBOS

A few ways:

1) There is no way to upgrade into first class without paying the same fee that someone without status pays. You do get a first shot at buying the upgrade, but in my experience that has only been useful at most 10-20% of the time (for the remainder, F is generally sold out in the last 12 hours before the flight).

2) The Main Cabin Select upgrades are just exit row seats with free food, which you can get at booking on the legacy airlines if you have status (minus the food). With VX you can only get them at the upgrade window, meaning 12 hours ahead for Silver and 24 hours for Gold. Making this worse, you really don't want to rely on the automated upgrade process if you don't want a middle seat, because that's mostly what's left at the upgrade windows and they give you no way to specify that you want the upgrade only if there's a window or aisle available. So much of the time the upgrade is actually something of a downgrade if you aren't careful. There is one row of exit seats available at booking for free, but this is at best at parity with the legacy airlines, not an advantage.

3) You get lounge access as UA Gold when flying internationally and on partner airlines. This is a significant benefit. VX only has one lounge (at LAX) and you still need to pay $20 to get in, even as Elevate Gold. On VX partners there are no benefits (only redeeming awards and earning points).

The other benefits (priority boarding and security, and mileage bonuses) are identical to the legacy airline programs.

I would argue that if you're getting Economy Plus at booking most of the time, and F upgrades occasionally, you're doing much better with United than you'd do with Virgin status. I like the airline but the status program is very weak.