They must be very confident about their ability to attract more full fare business than they have historically gotten. As far as I have observed (I'm US1), this airline has not had a great deal of inventory pressure on FC seats. Indeed, if one reads these threads, it would seem that lower level elites do better obtaining upgrades than their counterparts on other carriers. If this thing sticks, it will likely be seen in retrospect as one of the more thoughtless marketing changes an airline has ever performed. Continental tried it several years ago, with the result that there was a management change, and the policy was rescinded. If nothing else, they can regulate access to seats and upgrades by controlling inventory, and accomplish the same thing without offending longtime customers. On the other hand, since not much goes on in this business in a vacuum, perhaps they are all planning to do it. US better hope so, because this carrier can ill afford to offer less. I will stop short of using the word "betrayal", but springing a change like this as a footnote in some boilerplate on the website is, at best, shortsighted. As a matter of form, it certainly lacks class