I booked my first flight in 14 months on Saturday that takes off tonight and returns on the 15th (finally seeing family, including a new baby that was born on Saturday, huzzah!) and I was shocked at how easily I got upgraded.
My redeye outbound SEA to ATL on the retrofitted 764 (D1 suites but not marketed as a D1 flight) auto-upgraded me to First from MC within an hour of booking (I was waiting for the medallion line to call me back so I could burn some RUCs and by the time they did I had already cleared to FC). I probably had a decent shot of getting a complimentary FC upgrade on the return (same 764), but I was able to just apply the RUC to get it instantly and burn it since it expires in December.
I was/am shocked at how easy it was. I was tempted to just book directly into FC since I’ll need to hustle to get my MQD for the year, but we’ll take that as it comes.