Another data point- my ORD-NRT segment in December has been waitlisted for a few months now. Over the last few days I've noticed several award fare buckets filling up, but no R space. Early this morning at about 2am, every fare code except R was available. I checked again at 930am and it showed R1.

I called the 1K desk and the first agent said I had to wait for the computer. The second said only the revenue management desk can do it and they are unreachable. Finally I got an agent who had a supervisor clear it.