I think the benefit is advertised clearly, you can use eUps to upgrade to a higher class of service when there is an open seat in that class. Air Canada selling out their J cabin is just a fact of life sometimes.
Regarding too many elites, I was just warning that you might want to be careful what you wish for if you currently only have 50k. They’ve already devalued 35k and if this is truly a problem lower tiers is who they’ll come after next.
Not sure what you mean about 3 tiers corresponding to other airline alliances? Like just have one that is no status, one that corresponds to *S and one for *G? That doesn’t make a lot of sense as other airlines also have higher tiers above that which gets you *G (like HON Circle with LH).
The other big elephant with NA is premium credit cards. As a Super Elite with the Amex Reserve card I’m just swimming in credits, which is I suppose how it is intended to be. However, starting the year with 20 credits plus the 50 if I choose that select benefit, plus the 50 rollover plus the rollover SQM mean I also start with more from the threshold rewards. Just a lot of credits floating around…
I don’t know, end of the day as SE I rarely have an issue getting upgraded, and while I understand that you do as a 50K, that sounds like the problem of “too many elites” is somewhat taking care of itself.