When I said bonus, I meant benefit or perhaps "sweetener." Thanks for the clarification.

Still, the only "commitment" made by CO is that you will get space available upgrades automatically. . . .which leaves revenue management with a lot of responsibility to determine what is available.

I have flown a lot of flights over the past several years and have only flown in Y once when there was a seat open up front and that was my mistake (I was tired and accidently didn't add myself to the FC upgrade waiting list at the kiosk--dumb me. . .).

My record with EUA has been pretty good and the rest of my upgrades have come through battlefield promotions.

I also recently upgraded to BF to/from NRT for 25k miles (full fare Y) with no problem, so generally, my experience with OP has been very positive and perhaps that colors my view that sometimes shenanigans are not shenanigans. . . future experience may change that.