Originally Posted by USCTrojan83

I don't think you're aware of how VX upgrades work...

Previously, regular customers were able to pay a steeply discounted rate to upgrade, if available, 6 hours before their flight. Elevate Silver members had a 12 hour window, with Gold having 24. VX has never offered free upgrades to first. Given this, a key benefit was the ability to upgrade to a high-quality product at a steeply discounted price (in your words cold, hard cash). Now that VX is offering random strangers the ability to also upgrade for a discounted price well before this window, it highly devalues the benefit for the member - as the likelihood of seats being available are substantially lower. Back when I would fly them more often, this benefit was one of the reasons I made it a point to keep my Gold status up.