Regarding TheAuditor's comment about the EUA doing exactly what it was supposed to in Carberry's case, I agree completely.

As for me, I've gotten 4 of 4 EUA's as a Gold Elite. I've always gotten the email. Most of the time, it's been at the time my upgrade window opened, but in one case it was a day later.

Regarding all the complaining about the EUA, since FC seats are not going out empty, it would seem to me that the EUA program is more fair than the old system. As to whether F seats are not being released at the Platinum window, or in some cases until the day before the flight, does it really matter with the EUA (assuming that it enforces the heirarchy as published)? A Platinum will be ahead of Golds, Silvers, and other Platinums that purchase tickets later (except for Y fares) regardless of when inventory is released into F. I agree that it is a bit frustrating to not get the email when your window first opens, but as long as the EUA program works as designed (and it appears to be doing so now), I'm comfortable with it.

And, I say this only after they have stopped doing manual upgrades on the phone. The reason I say this has already been mentioned: if F inventory is not available at your first EUA window, then you stood the chance of having your seat scooped by someone lower in the pecking order calling in for a manual upgrade.

Of course, I always liked it when it was me doing the scoop of a "lazy platinum's" upgrade, but I think the new system is more fair, and quite a bit easier on everyone.

I know that some have said that we really have no way of telling that the EUA is actually implementing the published heirarchy. This thoery implies that perhaps CO will make exceptions for certain undisclosed reasons, and put some people at the front of the line. I'd like to point out that this ability on CO's part is nothing new with the EUA: who's to say that with the old manual system, certain people who were granted special upgrade priority and were given upgrades when manually requested, even when there was no F inventory at the time? We'd have no way of knowing that this was going on then, just as we have no way of knowing that it's happening with the EUA. I think it comes down to how much we trust CO to be fair about the policies, and has nothing to do with the EUA. Personally, I see no reason to distrust them on this point.

The problems I see (saw?) with the EUA were:
1. Premature implementation before customer notification
2. Early bugs in the system.
3. Initial published rules didn't explain the system in sufficient detail.

Since all of these problems are now behind us, I'm very happy with the way it is now. Since the above problems seem very out of character for CO, I think this reflects poorly only on the individuals that were managing the EUA cutover, and not CO as a whole (assuming of course that this problem was recognized by CO upper brass and steps have been taken to keep it from happening again on another project).

Regarding RustyC's comment about having to wait at the gate until after everyone else has boarded to see if you get a standby upgrade, thus getting hosed on bin space if you end up in back, this is not my experience. In every such instance I've run into, you can pre-board to take your assigned coach seat, and if you get the upgrade, the gate agent will find you in back (they know your old seat assignment so this is not difficult) and will hand you your upgrade. This is a wonderful system, and CO is the only airline that I know of that does this as a matter of course (please correct me if anyone knows of another airline that does this).