Wait for waitlist or bug AA atw desk?
 

I hate to perturb the system by asking for "that special" agent, so I asked the voice at the other end for 3 D seats to SJO on a flight showing J7 D2. I figured he'd grab the 2 available seats and ask the revenue people for the third, but his approach was to waitlist all three of us.

I'm guessing that the revenue management folks won't be particularly interested in releasing that third seat without a little nagging. Meanwhile the D2 might easily become D0, leaving me 3 seats short instead of one. Thoughts?

Are you all on the one PNR ? Split into 2 or 3 seperate bookings - reservations may be way

I'd do as Mwenenzi has suggested. It might be airline policy to never release more than 2 D seats. And as soon as they are gone, they might release 2 more. You run the risk of 3 seats never being available together, and those who want 1 or 2 leapfrogging over you to get the 2 now available.

...and you can link the PNRs later.

Done as advised. Just as well I called - the Aagent who picked up the call yesterday hadn't done me any favors. Both the outbound and return were J7 D2 yesterday and I needed D3 so he "waitlisted" both. This morning I noticed the return had gone to D6, but whatever "waitlist" means at AA, the computer certainly had not booked 3 seats for me. I pointed that out to today's Aagent who grabbed them, and I had him do the split for the outbound (splitting seems to be a chore they'd rather not do). Revenue control immediately bounced his request for the third seat, but he put it on an "appeals" queue.

Well, I'm still holding just two D seats LAX-SJC, and three D seats SJC-LAX. A week or so has gone by since I got AA to split the PNR and grab those seats, and the third south-bound seat that I need hasn't magically appeared.

Unfortunately, the flight appears to be pretty full - about the only thing on offer is Y1 in the cheap seats. The front shows J7. I suppose that doesn't give the revenuers much incentive to give me one more D, but is there any useful strategy for shaking the seat-tree?

Nope, if it really is Y1 and 0 for all other coach buckets, then the flight is already oversold and AA is filling those J seats with the oversells; but is willing to bump them, and pay USD 500 in vouchers or whatever, if someone pays for a J seat. The D revenue is simply too low to cover the voucher cost, so you can either hope for some no-shows (probably mis-connects on the day of travel, as I suspect LAX-SJO is mostly vacation travel) or try for a different flight which isn't oversold this much. Y1 almost always means Y0 but willing to oversell (ie. J/F space is there).