Originally Posted by
bse118
Clearing 4 SWUs on any one flight, regardless of aircraft, is a tall order. Unless there, by some miracle, happens to be confirmable space at booking I'd just book the flight you think offers the best price/schedule right now. And then monitor the paid upgrade prices for a while. AA is so rarely making upgrade space available in advance these days. Also: with 10 months between now and the flight it's highly likely that schedules (and even aircraft) will change, so don't overthink this.
Thanks for your advice. On the recent trip I mentioned above, I called AA to see about upgrading with points and miles (for four BE tickets on a 788/787). They were able to confirm upgrades all four seats on the return flight's long-haul segment right then. (She was surprised though - said that usually didn't happen.) At about T100, I think, the domestic connection to my home hub upgraded. On the outgoing flight, they upgraded me on the long-haul portion, but the remaining 3 didn't upgrade. But I was thankful for the easy return upgrade for four seats on a plane with limited business seats. (The economy seats, even the MCE seats, seem much smaller/crowded than on other planes.)