I often wondered why the UA people seem to have a much lower chance of an upgrade until I read PremEx's site and learned they receive 2(??) upgrades per quarter if they fly a set number of miles. AA does not offer this benefit and therefore the competition for those certificate/sticker upgraded seats is much less.

As Exec Plat I have only failed 1 time to get an upgrade (a flight to Vegas that showed zero in F almost 3 months prior to flight day). All the other times my upgrade had cleared prior to me getting to the airport.

As a platinum my average was near 80 percent, however, I would have to standby at the airport many times.

What I miss are the days of being ExecPlatinum before they allowed 100K miles to qualify. Ticket agents would jump through hoops to assist me. I have noticed a slow decline in the last year as Exec Plat as become more common.

The question being is top tier worth it? I would say YES. Assuming i continue to fly 120K miles per year, I would much rather have 1 ExecPlat card then a Plat and a PremEx/GoldPreffered/Mid-TierAnyAirline card anyday.

rich