i even saw the "Hurry, only 4 seats left" when I priced out a standard award in F. Took a look at the seatmap and there were only 4 open seats and checked inventory at F4.

most people have no concept about booking codes. On AA, i simply take a look at the bucket code, if it says Q, I buy. if it says O, I'll definitely buy. N, i'll prolly buy. Anything higher, i'm looking at different dates. I don't buy N and worry about Q/O coming up later cuz N is low enough.