The slime IMHO is that UA makes up to 50% of the plane wait to get a seat assignment until the gate. I think it is a perfectly reasonable expectation for a passenger on a commercial flight (elite or not) to get a seat assignment at checkin. In extenuating circumstances, (oversold flight, flight with only a few seats remaining for assignment) I can understand making a passenger wait until the gate to get a seat assignment. However, in the situation of a flight with few elites, it is not right to make a large number of pax wait until the gate. Slimier still is that these pax are sometimes misled to believe that they must pay up for E+ in order to get on the flight.