Oh...what would I do....well, let's see. I haven't been to HNL since the comp upgrades went into effect, so previously it was either YUP or vip/miles upgrades depending on the fare situation.....no way I would have risked waiting for upgrades to clear, since I had to pay for them anyways.

Now, I might chance the upgrades, depending on the loads, and I'd use the methods described above with the availability tool. Obviously if the flight is pretty packed when I book it (making sure A class is available before I do so), I'd just go ahead and upgrade because we are talking about the 2nd best seat (763 great pitch, increased recline and legrests) that AA currently has to offer on a pretty long flight.

Here's the link for the availability tool...not sure if it's still the case, but when I installed, the installation interface was in german....just keep hitting the green button > like you would any other software installation...after that the actual program is in English.

http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~hartberg/ft/SabretoolSetup.htm