I understand AA's policy is that award tickets are not upgrade eligible, but has anyone had success in receiving an upgrade from Y to J/F on an award ticket where (1) you are an EXP (or other elite) (2) all normally wait listed upgrades have cleared and (3) there are many seats still left empty up front?
I was in this situation 2 weeks ago on a 2-class domestic flight with 10 empty seats in F after the list cleared... still no upgrade for me. It looks like I will be in a similar situation on a flight this weekend, and am wondering if anyone has had more success in this.

If not, I will sit in MCE and be happy with my free sandwich and cocktail, but it still seems strange to me that even DL will give upgrades in this situation. Seems unnecessarily stingy.

Thanks all!