...And voila! my upgrade clears...

Don't see this discussed much in recent history, but this just worked for me over the weekend.

I have an upcoming multi-segment international trip. Upgrades had cleared in advance for all segments, with the exception of one domestic connection on a tough A319 waitlist for upgrade (nearly impossible for a 1P to get 1 of 8 on a SFO-ORD segment.

I called reservations, and pointed out that all 8 seats are available, yet I'm still waitlisted. The agent concurred that it doesn't seem right not to offer at least one seat for an upgrade...I recalled this being the case once before, and I told the agent, "Isn't there something you can send to inventory control for them to look at?" He said, "Sure...Good idea...I'll send it over for them to review". Less than a day later, my final waitlisted segment cleared, over 2 months ahead of time.

Just thought I'd share my success with this method. Another option for those waitlisted...But probably a waste of time unless the upgraded cabin is wide open and you're still waitlisted.