Are you saying you were #1 on the upgrade list but #2 was upgraded ahead of you? That happened to me once too, I showed it to the AAngel in the AC and after looking at her computer she said it should not have happened but could not (would not?) explain it.

Here's my track record for my flights over the last two weeks:

• DEN-DFW, cleared at gate, pmAA A321, Monday morning flight
• DFW-ELP, cleared at 100hrs or so, MD80, Monday midday
• ELP-PHX, cleared at 24hrs, CR9, Friday mid-day
• PHX-DEN, did not clear (#1 on list), A320, Friday afternoon
• DEN-PHL, cleared at 4hrs, pmUS A321, Monday morning
• PHL-LGA, cleared at 100hrs or so, E75, Monday early afternoon
• DCA-DFW, did not clear (#2 out of 20 on the list), pmUS A321, Friday at 6:30pm
• DFW-DEN, cleared at 100hrs, pmUS A321, Friday night

More importantly - my SWU for DEN-DFW-LHR tomorrow (Sunday) cleared at 36 hours.

After tomorrow, and for the year to date, including both complimentary upgrades and SWUs I have flown 42 of my 48 AA segments in domestic F or international J (and that includes one pmUS TATL 757 that I didn't bother with requesting an upgrade on) - with every ticket having been purchased in lowest-Y. I find it really hard to complain about that. (Although I do expect my success rate to change once we switch over to priority based on spend)

I was number 4 on the list, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 5 were upgraded.

I was the last UPG1 on the PALL, below me was an UPG2 who was upgraded.

My weekly ORD-SDF (CRJ9 or E175) used to invariably clear at T-100. Now it nearly always clears inside 24 hrs, so I can't pre-select my bag of chips or granola bar.

23h to the flight AA45, Expertflyer show
J7 R6 D3 I2 Y3 B0 H3 K3 M3 L3 V3 G3 S3 N3 Q3 E0 O0
Seat map show 50% of the seat in J are not allocated, yet no C opened...

AA45 - CDG-JFK?

If so, your're talking about SWUs, and there is no window for those, so not really a complaint for this thread.

My husband is Exec Plat. Yesterday ATL to Ord. Many seats showed open in 1st. (In AA club they told him he was number 1 on waitlist.) Didn't clear when he checked in at counter. Didn't clear until about 40 mins before the flight. On way to ATL on Fri. cleared 20 hours before. As he says, "always nice to get an upgrade." But something is going on with the comp upgrade "window" for EPs...

Something has changed
 

Only missed one SWU in 16 years (HKG-DFW) up until 1st half of this year. Domestic upgrades were about 90-95% over the years, a couple of years were higher.

Since July 1, have missed 3 SWU´s and domestic upgrades are now about 40% (4 out of 11). I stay away from peak travel times and tend to travel when most EXP´s don´t (like Saturday evening), so it´s not because I´m below other EXP´s. Only one upgrade was more than T-4, many were cleared at the gate.

IMHO, AA simply isn´t releasing them like they used to.

AA has been having some issues recently. I am Exec Plat-On My last leg(PHL-MCO) of an international trip, there were 9 out of 12 empty seats. I did not clear prior to boarding and when I go to the Gate, I wasn't on the upgrade list (and they had cleared 8 people.) The good news is there was still a seat (although I had to really push about the issue so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor said he has had several instances in the last week of Exec Plats not appearing on the upgrade list.

This IS in my experience an actual issue. There is some bug that causes domestic upgrades requests to drop after a long haul international segment. It's happened to me several times, missed a Y to J on JFK-SFO because of it.

International check in agent not adding you to the connecting airport list when checking you in?

Mine were sub-500 and didn't:

This thread is about neither SWUs nor missed upgrades.

Got this email from my dad yesterday about a RDU-JFK flight:

He said they even put a uniformed pilot in F. I directed him to our happy little thread.

My observations, and by are no means proof, but this is what I have noticed since about mid year 2016:

Seat Availability (which many have mentioned isn't really "available" but just not assigned a person, so there could be someone in first without a seat assignment) used to release to about 75% at 100 hours out if all Execs were on the list. Then at about 24 hours it would release to 90%. These are averages, that I have seen the vast majority of the time.

Now I see, from 0% to 50% release until 24 hours before. Seriously, I had a flight, not one seat released, and based on the computer computation that awards seats from back to front, windows to aisles, I was the first one that got a seat (It cleared 3 at 4 hours before the flight, putting me in 6a, the first one to clear).

50% to filled up to, 4 hours before the flight is exceptionally common now more than half the time.

So it's obvious there is enough correlation to infer that things indeed have changed. I was also told by an AA gate agent they keeping those seats open longer so that kiosk checkins can buy the upgrades at $45 per 500mile segments, squeezing another $135 (for MSP to MIA) on a ticket instead of giving awards, keeping only a couple at the very end in a worst case scenario left for upgrades at time of boarding.

The Trend seems to be for short term $ today at the expense of the frequent fliers, and especially the "premium" tiers. Having been Exec for 9 years, I don't even see how a Plt, or Plt Pro will get an upgrade starting 1/1/17 anymore. Execs are also getting more left out of the upgrade awards.

One Mile at a Time has shown that Delta and United programs offer you better overall value, as all programs are homogenized, might as well take the best performing or best cabin service airline over American who has made their program the absolute worst in the US Industry now if you compare cabin offering and performance numbers vs. Cost and Mileage/Award values.