I think they should be allowed to use points to upgrade, maybe they should have people request the upgrade ahaed of time, that way they can tell if they have the points to do so or not. Then they will get upgraded on the day of the flight after all the status members are upgraded. There a still a number of flights where people can upgrade on internationally, for example many of the YVR - asia routes and a couple of the yyz - lhr flights if you pick the right time.