Originally Posted by
royal757
because the APP said only 1 book in business class, and 11 free seats. When I phoned AC reservations they said there were only 4-5 elites on the flight. When I arrived at the gate, the agent showed me there were only indeed 4-5 elites on the flight (me included as a P25k haha). And she was processing the comp.upgrades.
In general, the fact that there are empty business seats available does not mean that anyone will get an op-up .... AC will only do that if the flight is oversold (or, in the good old days, for weight & balance - generally of the Embraer's). Now perhaps your flight was oversold, I don't know .... but even that wouldn't have been enough to guarantee that they'd bump people up, as it's certainly possible for there to be misconnects (etc).
I've played the same game as you did, and bet in the opposite direction - I chose not to put an upgrade request in, because I thought the flight was oversold and I was hoping to get an op-up .... and the flight has departed with empty seats in J and me in Y. So it's not a for-sure thing ....