I've been trying to find details on exactly how AA processes upgrades when it is you plus a companion on the list for domestic upgrades. I know the companion inherits my status, but I am coming to surmise that the upgrade list skips both of you unless two F seats become available at exactly the same time. I am a mid/high LP EXP, and have taken several flights recently with a very similar fact pattern:
1. Book a flight on what in theory should have be an easy upgrade: short hop, Hub-to-outstation on a CR9 or E175 at non-peak business travel times
2. Observe J7 C7 availability on EF all the way to ~4 days before flight
3. Slowly watch availability creep down to J6, then J5, then J4, etc all the way down to J1 the day before the flight
4. Show up at airport to find myself and my travel partner as almost the only two people on the upgrade list
5. Get called up by GA before boarding and asked if we want 1 upgrade or both stay together in coach

This fact pattern strongly suggests to me that AA is opening upgrade space one seat at a time and skipping us because we are a pair. I suppose it is possible that people are buying cheap upgrades one at a time, or that there are CK/EXPs above me getting cleared, but the tiny upgrade list in #4 suggests that isn't the case. Is there a way to "separate" us such that we would be eligible to clear advance upgrades one at a time in the 96 hours prior to the flight?