Originally Posted by
canadiancow
You say "no additional revenue", but there are thousands of people who give AC additional revenue knowing they'll have access to eUps for use in the future, that they would not get if they just picked "best option" from Google Flights for every trip.
Not to mention people who book above Basic/Standard for the sole purpose of using eUps.
Take away the actual upgrade, and a lot of that "no additional revenue" disappears.
My classification (and experience) of eUps is in the ballpark of a lottery ticket, but with orders of magnitude better odds. The days of counting on frequent upgrades as a benefit to status are long gone.
And with all this premium leisure travel, more people than ever have tasted the benefits of flying premium and will have trouble going back and none of them have status making the whole expectation even more futile.
My search abilities are definitely not up to the skill level to confirm, but I would wager I've been saying this for the better part of 7 years: If you want J, pay for J.
In 2025: Buy the cabin you are prepared to fly in and hope for better but set expectations accordingly.