My company allows J for flights over 12 hours, with approval from above. We go to Asia frequently, so that's not a problem. However, I have been aggravatingly close on some routes to Europe and South America and end up upgrading out of pocket. DCA to GRU was exactly 12. LAX to LHR is 11.
Even when the policy restricts me to a Y ticket, our booking system permits us to include our own FF account numbers and collect rewards. I am an AA Plat, soon to be Exec. Plat later this week when my recent transpacs hit...but in addition the company itself get's Pref. status, so my base booking tends to be MCE or Pref, and I get UG'd from there to J or F either by auto-ugs, a cheap out of pocket buy up, or by dropping a few 500 Mile UGs to maintain status. I won't have to do that after Exec however.
Although AA is my airline of choice, their presence in my base city is not terribly strong, although the OW alliance helps. WN is...but I hate them with a fiery passion and have learned to work the auto-exception messages in our travel software to justify taking AA instead, even if it means stops and barbie jets (I have no problem with barbie jets). "Scheduling" is my favorite excuse, even when not true. I don't ever buy Biz Select at booking, I don't fly WN enough to have A List, however on the rare occasions when I HAVE to endure WN I do buy EBCI out of pocket or ug my position during a cheap gate-upgrade opportunity.