that’s what I thought. If anyone with no status or lower status can pay to move to the top of the upgrade list to grap available First seat, what’s the use for Gold or 75K? And according Alaska customer care as of this afternoon, I was told in no uncertain term that this is the policy by D***
unfortunately, it is true. Since this has been happening to me more regularly, I have carefully documented the situation. The customer was outside of top 10 on the upgrade list ~15 minutes before boarding. ~5 minutes later, he was moved to the top of upgrade list and ~ 2 minutes later he was upgraded. The only person upgraded at that moment.