There was (and still is) a TON of inventory, including one way 80K in Polaris this week

(another connected thread I mentioned i canceled my paid Premium Economy using MUA to waitlist for confirmed Polaris) which i took advantage of

Even a few short hours before the flight, Polaris easily had 25 seats empty (777-200)

I think United adds a second Buenos Aires Houston flight each direction sometime around Nov I, and I was on the later (added) flight so it could just be the extra inventory is due to the relative newness of the second flight

AFTER BOARDING, whats incredible was there was still open Polaris seats up front (I counted 11) BUT... there were 16 customers "upgraded" and 3 upgrades to Premium Economy

I'm Gold Premier, so if I was booked in paid Economy seat , would I have only been upgraded to Premium Economy?

Just wondering where those 16 Polaris upgrades came from - its hard to imagine all of these folks used miles, MUA, or Plus Points to upgrade?

Wonder if, in hindsight, would have been worth it to keep my 80K miles and I would have (maybe) got to Polaris anyways, but not sure if it would have been only if i was in Premium Economy?

There are no freebies intl right?

Thoughts?