Originally Posted by
jsloan
A second reason to provide upgrades to frequent travelers is to try to provide an additional incentive to book UA even when all else is equal — or even when UA is at a disadvantage in terms of convenience, fare, or whatnot.
And the golden goose here is to cultivate customers who don't even bother to check competing prices when they book. This is admittedly harder now that you can just load up your favorite search engine to see side-by-side.