Everything worked out for us at the gate...but it was kind of a mess. The agent actually made us wait until group a finished boarding just in case any last minute customer ran up to the gate to upgrade.

nobody came and he upgraded the 2 of us ( both mvp ) into an open mcs row.

the seats and service on flight were great. Even the gate agent that eventually helped was really nice....but it's pretty clear that virgin and alaska are making this much harder than it needs to be right now.

anyways, don't want to sound ungrateful because it was processed and made for an enjoyable flight.