Originally Posted by
LimeyFlyer
The benefits, however... sometime a GPU will clear... and the Mrs Limeyflyer can have a saver miles ticket when I'm in paid J.
Just to mention since you didn't - but booking COACH saver awards and upgrading them with a GPU can almost double the value of your miles in many, many cases. At the least, a "standard coach+GPU" is roughly the same price as a saver business ticket, which is a great inventory workaround - and you can still get your miles back if saver opens up at any point. And of course, as you do mention, the ability to force someone into the seat next to you is something I consider of incredible value.
The elimination of F has pushed me to use GPUs exclusively on award tickets. To me, round trip business award tickets on UA to Europe for example have an effective price of 60k miles - utterly unheard of anywhere else. I just scored a huge celebration dance when I scored a DL r/t business ticket for 160k last week! It's hard to argue that MP isn't the best possible program out there if you're a GS flyer, IMHO.