Originally Posted by LovePrunes

seat map is a horrible indicator of being oversold. There's been lots of posts on here over the years.
even times when expert flyer shows Y0 and they're no longer selling seats for a particular flight, they may still indeed have leftover seats behind the scenes that only people on JetNet can see.
AA knows which people can be rolled from coach to biz or biz to first if they need to.
I've had offers to volunteer and when I've asked the gate agent what's up, been told they still have tons of seats and don't know why the app is offering to get vols.

bottom line, I think it's VERY hard to predict when they'll really need vols, and AA is exceptionally good at NOT needing vols most of the time. But don't use the seat map to estimate.