With the new Online check-in you can check in for your flight before the final EUA run at 3 hours prior to departure.

Has anyone checked in without an upgrade and still gotten the EUA? Did you find out at the gate or on the plane? Does the online check-in mean the EUA skips your record and you must wait to be saved at the gate? If the old rules still apply the earliest check-in is the deciding factor (within elite tier) for upgrades at the gate, if so, online check-in could have an advantage.

Now that I'm lowly gold (and fly cheap fares) EUA never doesn't do much for me anymore, but I was wondering what the pros/cons were for checking in online or waiting for EUA.