3 FC seats were available LTO>PHX on Wednesday for a Thursday flight. 2 seats went to a passenger and her husband who were Platinum by way of meeting the Southwest Airline status challenge(yes, I personally know these passengers). The upgrades came prior to AA publishing the upgrade list for the flight. We are Platinum-Pro and were 2,3 on the list when the seat inventory was listed at 0. It was a short flight so no big deal but I am wondering if AA is giving these challenge passengers a taste of upgrades as an incentive to keep booking AA flights.