Wanted to share my experiences since I get so much great info from this site. Traveling on a government fare from the US, with the intl leg of ORD-LHR. FYI SWUs cannot be used in conjunction with govt fares. I booked back in feb and made a mileage/co-pay upgrade request then. I checked EF daily about two weeks out, and two days prior to departure I was checking hourly and happened to wake up at 3 AM one day; I checked EF and lo and behold AA had released 3 C seats on my outbound. Called EXPLAT line and they got me in.

On my return, two days out J appeared full on EF. I was sad. Then one full day out one seat opened up, but no C space on EF. The night before departure (about T-18) I checked EF and not only was there a fresh C seat, but it was a coveted window seat midcabin on a Dreamliner. I called EXPLAT line and at first she said she couldn’t help me. I asked her to check C space again and she found it and snagged me that window seat. Lesson for me is persistence and that EF is truly invaluable!

What’s not clear to me is how these requests are prioritized. I know I’m high on the list because of when I made the request (and I have a decent rolling EQD), but did I get the seat because I was proactive and called, or because I was at the top of the list and might have cleared anyway? Both times I called the EXPLAT line I was immediately cleared.