The reason I have pretty much abandoned my other thread (which you reference above) is that it certain posters have turned it into an "ethics issue."

People book full Y for many reasons, and the fact that so many FTers feel it's their place to judge whether or not buying Y is "ethical" is infuriating. I often buy full Y when the itinerary necessary is, to take a recent example, IAH-ABQ-DCA-MSN-DTW-SFO-IAH, which was not for fun but to accomodate many different entities. When meetings get moved, canceled, shortened, or extended I can make changes that won't suddenly result in a $100 change fee and $1800 extra in fare difference, and if Continental's system goes to hell because of a hurricane in Houston I can switch to another carrier without serious loss.

The fact of the matter is that Continental wants you to buy full Y. To give their passengers an incentive, they let elites (who, by the way, also have logged the BIS miles to become elite) upgrade. Maybe those Golds have flown 120,000 miles this year but only get 50% EQMs because they have to use a company travel agency - how do you know?

EWR ATC HOLD, please know I'm not attacking you - this is probably more appropriately posted in the thread Bonehead references above, but since he's chosen to bring the "ethics" argument here this is where I'm posting. Perhaps CO should only let Plats Y-up until two weeks out?

Personally, I understand their policy because it's a money-spinner and it does encourage you to pay the $130 extra to sit up front, which is still a savings off the First fare. If that plane had 24 seats of Golds paying $531 each, that's $12,744. One-way seats on those flights can go for $91; why should a Plat paying $91 trump a Gold paying $531? Theoretically, those 24 people up front could be paying the same amount as 140 people are paying total down the back. And on really busy routes - like Chicago-NYC - where the whole plane might be road warrior Plats, how could they decide who gets the upgrade? It's a difficult process.