Lemons to lemonade :)

On my recent PDX-ANC flight, the guy at the window is a Gold and was livid that he kept getting pushed down on the list; he even had a heated argument with Alaska. He went on to say how he pays to fly, not some company, etc etc. Cry me a river. I told him I was 75K for years and missed it due to the American/Delta cutbacks (would do a LOT of "A" class of service flying up and down the east coast which meant lots of EQMs). Just surprised he wasn't aware how the upgrade lists work. I told him as a 75K I've been #20 on a list before, of 65.

Lots of us at FlyerTalk are informed, but the masses, are not. I don't feel bad for "spilling the beans" on our not-so-secret-but-was method of cutting the upgrade list. Alaska has known about this for at least a year, and they even passed up using Virgin America's AirRM (Revenue Management - changes fare classes & buckets based on whatever calculations and algorithms you program it to do) system which could be setup to zero out U inventory on day of departure to manage inventory. Instead, Alaska chose a different system. I firmly believe that U and W classes are "protected" - which means when a customer who is booked in that class of service changes, that seat goes BACK into that specific bucket, regardless of how full or empty the flight is.

oI'm not sure of that. I cancelled a recent airfare that was UG'd already and tried to immediately rebook using a birthday discount code. Guess what, I ended up flying P instead because U didn't come back within several Days, maybe longer. My intent, obviously was to rebuy for cheaper and maintain the UG. Instead, I paid more and got CoS bonus but rode with my friends upfront.

I think W and A behave in this manner, U not so much.

Indeed. And they gave me a hotel in PDX. And the direct flight to my destination tomorrow instead of connecting through SEA. Not unhappy at all.

Or it's possible (likely) that someone had purchased an eligible instant upgrade fare class and had been waitlisted, thereby taking your U spot and getting a spot up front. Seat map may not have changed because I find that when upgraded, AS doesn't assign a seat until the passenger goes in and selects one for themselves.

another data point. At check-in (~3 hours before departure) I was offered an upgrade for $53 (1 U was available on AS website). 75k sitting at #3 on the upgrade list. I ended up purchasing the upgrade as an exercise to see how AS would field this scenario. Called the 75k line, agent insisted that the process was by design - ie AS does this intentionally to sell U spots & raise $$$. My first time in ~5 years as a 75k being offered a paid upgrade. Can't imagine this was by design and would bet the house it was a symptom of their flawed upgrade processor. Thoughts?

Normally when we do that workaround as damieniz1 mentioned, the fee goes away and its free for us as MVP Gold or 75K.

Please ask AS for a refund.

An AS elite should not be charged for an upgrade.

This is a fault of the upgrade processor.

I dealt with that scenario out of Boston. Tried to charge me for the upgrade. Called MVP line and by the time they figured it out the system had kicked me out and I lost out on my upgrade. Agent told me next time just pay and they would refund me.

Yep. See my experience in December

I just got automatically upgraded at T-48 (I'm MVP). The email arrived 6 minutes after my upgrade window opened. So I guess it works sometimes?

Yep, and the inconsistency is probably the most maddening part.