As i said i bought a last minute full J fare ticket which had two domestic segments and those were booked in Y due to J being zero at time of purchase. Unlike other airlines that handle this better, AA has no waitlist to automatically put a full J passanger into the front cabin i paid for, when J drops below zero. And unless the check in agent coded the “upgrade request”, which let’s be clear it is really not in this case, to get me into the cabin I (quite dearly) paid for, then you might wind up behind someone else on the “upgrade list” who is getting a complimentary exp upgrade. In the end AA aapologized for the lack of training by the YVR based agent, who I would add acted kind of like I was asking a favor even when i suggested I’d like a refund and would take my $7k to the AC or UA counter and fly on them.

It doesnt matter though whether you wind up in Y due to standby rebooking or your original booking, if a front cabin seat opens prior to departure, the Paid front cabin fare passenger trumps any eco fare customers (even using an SWU) on the “upgrade list.” AA just hasn’t trained some (most?) of its outstation staff to code the “J fare passenger in Y” correctly onto the upgrade list so they do clear first.