Originally Posted by
cryan71
The account had 4 hard upgrades (meaning you buy a cheap seat and use that to instantly upgrade). However, don't make my mistake of using them for 2 hour flights -- it appears the food service on short flights isn't great.
The problem with AS (legacy, which is all you can use those upgrades for) is that unless you live in Seattle or are willing to connect through it just to get where you actually want to go (which is almost never efficient), then there are hardly any flights that aren't little two-hour flights. Hawaii, I guess, is the major exception out of the Bay Area. Maybe there are others I don't know about.
I did a status match a couple years ago from VX to AS, before any merger talks started, and I ended up not flying AS the whole year, despite having the free upgrades, etc. Outside of the occasional trip I make to the Pacific Northwest, it has never been the best option, though I guess that will change with the merger.