we both didn't clear, and I had a flight attendant check during the flight. there were "at least" two empty seats in business. Kind of shocking, right?

it wasn't worth $2400 (4800 total) to us; I can spend that on a lot of other things during our trip--but I was surprised that etihad let it go out empty rather than taking our $1500 per person. The GA suggested I call the toll-free number before we boarded, which I did, and the agent said since our offer has been rejected he was unable to do anything...the only option we had was the buy up offer they were giving us at the airport.

I have no idea if status plays into this or not, but since we are gold I figured for sure they would take our cash...especially since it wasn't a totally lowball offer.

Hope this helps someone else!