I don’t know when this all happened, but AS has never been super fast in responding to my emails. And you may have heard that there is currently some sort of mass cancellation event going on that might require resources otherwise used for misc other customer service issues.

As for the AS lounge staff at PDX, it’s not an excuse but it wouldn’t surprise me if the staff there has seen their fare share of annoyed/DYKWIA customers upset by the wait list feature.

You may have seen the priority order in the other thread. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I suspect no matter what order they choose there will be unhappy people.