Fwiw, don't forget also that you can have 2 waitlists per direction on an award seat. And also you can stand by for same-city pair routings.

A strategy I have used is to pick a date that will get me the trip I need, waitlist the optimal days and times, then try to hold off on booking it for as long as possible (keep calling and or visiting airports or angels to get the res extended before ticketing it) and then if it doesn't clear do it on standby. Fortunately most everything has cleared in advance ...