This is my first post, but wanted to contribute since I've learned a lot from this forum the past year. I flew AA flight #118 this past Sunday (7AM), LAX to JFK. I made EXP this past October, and this was my first transcon A321T flight with AA.
I dont have EF, but when I checked the AA website for open J seats, there seemed to be 4 open, and another 4 open in F. I was #1 out of 16 on the upgrade list, up until 1 minute before boarding, and then got bumped down to #2. Unfortunately, only 2 people were upgraded (the person that bumped me from the top, as well as #16). Obviously I was not happy with the results, but I'm not sure how the last person on the upgrade list got upgraded (perhaps SWU?).
However, on my flight to LAX from MIA (flight #275 this past Friday departing at 5pm), i was #9 out of about 45 people, and 12 of us were upgraded, a few minutes before boarding. the great thing was this was on their 777-300, which is much nicer than the J seats on the A321T.
So far this year, I am 4 out of 5 on complimentary upgrades, but the other 3 upgrades were on 737's (2 cleared @ T-4 and 1 cleared @ T-72).
I have a JFK-SFO roundtrip later this month (i depart early AM on both flights, Friday and Sunday), so let's see what happens.