This was my experience in January.

Original routing MIA-LAX-HKG in J all confirmed. CX opened up F SFO-HKG. Called to upfare to F and the route became MIA-DFW-SFO-HKG F award with DFW-SFO voluntary downgrade to Saaver coach due to availability.

T-72 I called to ask if we could be put back to F. Agent sent a request - almost instantly came back denied.

T-48 I called again. Same result.

T-36 I called again, agent had an attitude and refused to even tried.

T-24 I called again as the seat map still showed 7 F seats unassigned. I expect seat map for F is much more accurate than seat map for Y because most who are in F would choose their seats once their upgrades cleared or the moment they are booked with confirmation.

This time the agent was very nice - she said I saw you had made 2 requests met with denial - we could send an appeal. Appeal had different procedure. It might take a few hours to get a response, just kept checking your status online to see if there was a change in seat assignment. If the appeal was denied, your last chance was at the gate - if there was still availability. We were actually on separate PNRs because our reservations were made 3 weeks apart. She sent in the appeal one by one. I asked if we needed re-ticketing if we were put back in F. She said "they" should take care of it if they put you back to F. That part turned out was not correct, or "they" (the yield management) dropped the ball on re-ticketing.

There was no Z inventory ever during the whole time we took the voluntary downgrade. So Expert Flyer Alert would not help us. I was just going by instinct by monitoring the seat map with the upgrade window in mind.

2 hours later after the last call, the seats changed to Z.

When I tried OLCI, the system gave me error message and informed me to check in at the gate... I called and the agent had to confer with the help desk, found out the reservation needed re-ticketing. She had to "uncheck" us first, then processed the re-ticketing. She told me not to do anything until I got new e-tickets. The new e-tickets came at T-10. OLCI still gave me some error message but spit out boarding passes. No more glitch from that point on - Z all the way. When we arrived DFW from MIA, I noticed the F was checked in full. There would be no way we could get on F at the gate had we not been put back to F before our departure from MIA.

I am inclined to think status does not matter too much - we are LT GLD but only 1 revenue trip on AA in 2011. I honestly think if the cabin is 50% unoccupied going into the upgrade clear window, you have a chance to get some consideration from yield management. Too far out is a futile attempt to ask for consideration. Appeal is your last resort so dont use it up lightly.