How do automatic upgrades work vs available unsold 1st class seats?
I have a flight coming up this weekend that flies thru Chicago... I'm Plat Pro and I received the upgrade (at the 72hour mark) to 1st on the second leg but not the first so out of curiosity, I checked to see if there were any 1st class seats available to purchase and there were... so I was curious - does anyone know when AA makes these seats available for upgrade to members vs trying to sell them?
I thought (clearly incorrectly) that any unsold seats went into the upgrade pool. Clearly I'm wrong but I was wondering what the protocol was - if it was known at all.
Thanks!