FWIW- My family had (3) A awards on DFW-HNL (booked 316 days out) but not the iten we wanted. I set up flight alerts to see if other options opened up when I booked the tickets.

Based on my experience last month A class never showed up on EF and after 10.5 months. I suspect it was due to the backlog of waitlist requests on (2) DFW-HNL & the one DFW-OGG covering a three day period on the outbound and returns. So I was tracking 18 flights and none ever showed or alerted for A let alone X. I suspect the days of a significant lag time between release of availability and the fullment of request has been greatly mimimized.

Of note- my outbound seat mate, an EXP, on the oubound cleared (3) A awards 5 days out and my return seat mate and 5 others cleared less than 24hours before departure leaving several PLT's without an upgrade. This was durring the holidat travel season so YMMV.