Well, the gov't fares still count as Y fares for everything else, so you're pretty near the top of the list when it comes to upgrades (and they also cost the reduced full-fare mileage amounts for upgrades, even if they aren't comped).

I'm in the opposite position, I guess -- I would say that as a lower-tier elite, life is better on United than on most other carriers (due to E+), so I was pretty happy that our CA gov't fares were on UA (since that helped me toward requalification).

Now that they've changed our contracts to a different-airline-per-city-pair arrangement, I have to work harder to not wind up on Delta. sigh... You don't realize how good you've got it until it's gone -- I recently wound up going OAK->SLC->ABQ on RJ's instead of the UA mainline service and SW nonstops I used to enjoy.

Dan