Here's another way of looking at it. Say you're travelling alone on that same ORD-SFO flight, in E+. So Glenn T. calls you and says that they needed to raise revenue, so now a middle seat block cost $100 each way (1/2 the price of an upgrade). You complain about your benefits being taken away, and Glenn offers to make you a bet: You give UA the $100 for the block, but if they "oversold" the block and needed the middle seat, he'll give you a $150 voucher.

Would you do it always, sometimes, or never? What if you had no status and were in E-?