AA probably has about a million algorithms that will come into play, but there's no universal rule or anything as simple as if there are X seats left for sale then AA will release space for comp upgrades, or anything like that. It can and will vary heavily by the route, day, time, season, equipment, etc. For a Thursday afternoon DFW-LAX flight it's not surprising at all that with 6 seats left for sale AA hasn't released comp upgrade space yet.

Also not sure what you mean by EF showing 2 seats available?

There is absolutely an algorithm. But it’s not based solely on how many seats are remaining. It’s also based on how many seats they expect to sell.
With only 6 seats for sale on a Thursday evening (peak business travel) - which is also what I see on EF so don’t know what you mean about 2- I wouldn’t expect an upgrade until much closer to departure.

I find that if less than half the premium cabin is full on a domestic flight no upgrades until maybe closer to T-24. AA would rather sell the upgrade than give it away to an EXP for free.

I assume you mean if more than half the cabin is full then no advance upgrades?

I was just curious. I have no problem sitting in PE. I'll bet if the upgrade happens it won't happen til I get on the plane. My last few upgrades have come from the gate agent/. At the end of the day, it will be what it is. thx so much for the imput.

Flew SFO-JFK on a short business trip. Brand new Plat Pro matched over from Hyatt, 0 LP’s to my name, and ended up #2 on the waitlist after seeing maybe 4-5 people clear for upgrades at the gate. I’m surprised this route isn’t more competitive, seems doable enough to get Flagship Biz at Plat Pro especially on a heavy travel day.

Noob question, #2 on the waitlist means that you ultimately didn't clear right? You finished at #2 on waitlist?

Yes. You need some LP to jump over other PPs to have a chance. There were a fair number of CK and EPs as well.

Tomorrow morning, 1/18, I'm flying LAX-JFK. I very rarely ever fly transcontinental, so I wanted to do everything I could to get an upgrade. I booked this a couple of months ago, and I applied a miles and copay upgrade to the itinerary. It was weight-listed, and it did not clear all the way up until yesterday. And then yesterday, I got an email saying that my complimentary upgrade had cleared. So I checked my reservation, and I am upgraded. It says that the upgrade was complimentary, I was not charged the $75, and there were no miles deducted from my account. So I guess I got exceptionally fortunate. Not only did I get a complimentary upgrade, but they decided not to carry out the mileage upgrade that I attempted to apply. So in this case, if they just would have opened some space, they could have had 15,000 of my miles and 75 dollars out of my pocket. However, I got upgraded without having to pay. I was quite happy.

Plat Pro with around 130,000 loyalty points.

Thanks for DP, this is the route I'm most looking forward to as a newly minted Plat Pro so I'm gathering DPs on when the best days and times for transcont upgrades are.

AUS-LAS in ~57 hours from now on Thurs night. J4 on EF, still waiting to be cleared. 254k LP. AA trying to sell those seats :D

ORD-LAX Friday morning 1/20: EXP and one non-status companion cleared at 100 hours. PlatPro on separate reservation still on waitlist but being offered $200 buy-up. Looks like 5 seats out of 12 remaining (was 7 before the 100 hour upgrades cleared).

All the A321 that fly to Hawaii have 20F seats. Your upgrade, if available, would go from any coach seat to F, even from a basic economy fare in a middle rear seat. If you have no LPs, you're one peck above the highest ranking Platinum member, but below any PlatPro member with even 1 LP.

Weekend and Monday night red-eye flights are probably your best bet. LAX to both JFK and BOS are almost alway wide open in J on these flights.

I see. I don't have EF yet so what I've been doing is going to this link: https://www.aa.com/travelInformation...false&from=Nav and searching the seat map for the flights that I'm interested in. Then I figure I should pick the day and time of the flight with the most open F seats. Is this a reasonable way to do it?

Thanks! When you say wide open do you mean more than T-120 before the flight?