My father has JAL Global Club status and has actually received MANY operational upgrades this year, from Y to Business. He frequents the ORD-NRT route, which operates only once daily, with 747-400s configured with mostly premium seats (Y only in the last section of the main deck and 60 seats on the upper deck). As such, coach is often slightly overbooked. Thus it would seem that operational upgrades ARE given according to elite status.