My status-less wife, in her own PNR, has consistently been allocated the F cabin when the PNR also contains HKGJFK in F. On the one occasion that she had separate PNRs for each leg, she had to request the F seat at check-in at DPS and she was given it. This makes me believe that the initial upgrades were not a function of the awards having been allocated from a status-rich account, rather they were determined by the continuing award. I have no idea if revenue tickets are treated differently. But for awards, we've had good success.