Interesting experience yesterday on LAX-DFW; not sure what the implications are, if any.

My flight was served by a 789, but it was J0 from the moment I booked all the way to the plane leaving. When the list dropped at T-4 I was #4 on the list. I figured it was pretty much a lost cause, but called in anyway to request waitlist for miles+copay on the theory that it would bump me up past other EXPs using auto-upgrades. The rep on the phone said it would not make any difference at all; claimed that autos/miles/SWUs all had equal positioning and only the EQDs mattered. This was not my understanding at all. She agreed to waitlist me anyway and we both said we'd watch what happened and get educated a bit.

Right after the call I refreshed the app and I was still at #4 ; maybe 15 min later I checked and was at #5 , with a new name ahead of me. Nobody on the list cleared. Then when they called for CKs to board, like 10 people got on.

So...obviously that's inconclusive. There could simply have been 4 CKs on that list and I was already the top EXP before doing the miles+copay. Or AA could have changed the list order just as the rep said. Or I could have just been mistaken about the ordering in the first place (and have burned 15k/$75 a few times for no reason as a result). Seems crazy to me that they wouldn't put miles+copay/SWU ahead of auto-ups. Thoughts?