Originally Posted by ffI

I have been tracking the blocking of seats by calling AA daily under different accounts. In fact my significant other and I have both been calling 2-3 per day for past 2-3 weeks

This is the current state of blocking
1
No Guest Seat - NO SPACE whether booking EY or AA
This is ETIHAD BLOCKING SAVER SEATS TO SELL IF AT ALL POSSIBLE

2
- MORE THAN 3 weeks out Premium Blocked by AA
Etihad shows availability in Guest;
AA agent can see economy but NOT PREMIUM CABIN seats
At least US, UK, Trinidad and Fiji. I called all 4 numbers
(The latter 2 are for the Aus numbers at different times of the day)

3
- LESS THAN 3 weeks out AA unblocks premium awards
If guest seat open, AA agent can see it and Book in PREMIUM CABIN
(and economy as always)

4
- LESS THAN 1 week out EY unblocks SAVER seats in premium cabins
Now one sees a whole lot of Guest space open up which was not there before

1 & 4 above I have known for a while and routinely set my search to 1 week ahead at 6 AM US EST and I always found new space.
2 & 3 are new and due to AA blocking premium cabin on EY
QR is similar but less obvious as there are fewer seats on QR c/w EY

For some reason, Non-US routes are always not blocked by AA (so far).
I think this is to keep the Non-US customers (non-captive) happy with AA, while keeping the US customers (captive) unhappy but with nowhere else to go after accumulating miles, other than on BA cabins with high fees.

It does not matter to us as we have EXP, so we can change miles awards on AA, but the vast majority of EY bookings will now incur change fees, if premium cabins are not open at first.