Now that borders are opening I've booked two flights from the US: one to AKL and one to RAR. What has stood out to me is in the past when I booked this far in advance, my upgrades usually were processed immediately. That is not the case at the moment. I noted that while the seat map shows no one has selected a seat in Business, the upgrades are still pending, whereas in the past I received instant notification of approval (and I know the seat maps are not 100% reliable as to bookings, but in the past the same situation would have upgrades processed immediately).

Also, and I have never seen this before, on every flight to Raro from LAX beginning in November, 6 of 18 Business seats are blacked out (1A through 6A are not available to select). In the past only two seats would be unavailable - but now it is 33% of seats unavailable. Once again, the upgrades are still pending whereas in the past they would have been processed immediately (and again, I know the seat maps are not the official indication of how many people have booked, but I seriously doubt any elite has bought a ticket this far in advance for the days I am flying from LAX to RAR).

I mention it because in the past I always received notifications immediately, given how far in advance I book for flights that do not have many elites, whereas now it seems like they are not processing elite upgrades like they used to. It suggests to me something different is going on. And again, I am basing my current experiences on past experiences. All criticisms of my comments are appropriate, but keep in mind I have a large body of data to work with based on past travels.