I called today to ask about the rules around pushing an upgrade through because I’m taking a very rare non-paid biz class flight to Germany and wanted to know what I could do. I told the agent that the rule was, as I understood it, that if J>4 72 hours before the flight and I’m 1 on the list they force it through. She said “well, the open seats used to be one number, but it very recently changed”. I said “I assume it got larger” and she confirmed.

So it seems GS is even more devalued. Their schedule unfortunately is optimal for all my work travel so I’m kind of stuck but if AA came up with a CK challenge I’d be all over it in a heartbeat.