Fascinating.

Although the outbound JFK/BDA is the only one on which they could get lots of business travellers to pay full fare and fill up those 39! seats. The return is not really a business man type of flight at midday for meetings. I never saw the F seats (J Class) full of business people, thus thinking they only get 2-5 business people on J fares in the 9 seats in J/F seats and the rest on upgrades, miles or leisure travellers.

People will soon catch on -- why pay 500+ OW business class for what had been 250 OW economy -- the odds show most will likely not be in the F seats cabin.

I know from experience it was always difficult to upgrade on this flight -- eVIP and stickers even off peak days, middle of the week days, off peak seasons for Bermuda. It would not clear until the gate even after multiple attempts via telephone and seats still for sale and unassigned seats. I often asked at check-in again, and if no go asked for a seats in rows 7-11 to be sure I got something nice.

Yes, true, it should be easier to upgrade given increased seating -- but to pay now so of course AA gets something out of it -- stickers, miles, money....

Also they reduced the frequency of this flight on the off-season/this winter. It only runs a few days a week until March/April.