Know plenty of people who were upgraded on YBM and when they change to another flight, they also go right into F and not Y, even though R was showing zero. Additionally, my colleague of my recently bought a K fare and upgraded using an instrument. When he asked about SDC, he was told that if he didn't clear on the initial flight, he would go in the waitlist. However, if he cleared on the initial flight, he would go right into F if there was a seat. As of today, I'm 0 for many, many flights out of and into EWR since 3/3 on CPU. These tickets are generally Q or below. LGA, 4 for many, many flights. The 4 CPUs were due to Y fares and cleared at time of booking.

This past week, I flew EWR to PHX, and bought my ticket 2 weeks out and was $330 RT (L-class). I was shocked that it was so cheap. Thought the fare would have been at least M. Outbound was middle of day on Wed and the return was Sunday red eye. Really thought I would have cleared both. Nope. T-25 hrs out, seats disappeared faster than I could blink. My colleage connected through IAH but went to Bos. All of his flights cleared 3 days out, and we had the same booking class. I've come to accept that if I wanted to upgrade, i have to burn miles or an instrument.