Hurry up and wait. I think it should be a hard rule that upgrade/base awards be announced at least a month in advance. A friend of mine put the Standing Bid info into an Excel spreadsheet and figured how it should work out in like 20 minutes. These things could be done near instantaneously...

As for Phoenix and its future relevancy, I agree that it's wedged between two major powerhouse hubs that aren't going anywhere soon, but LAX is maxed out on capacity, so one guy I met theorized Phoenix would continue as essentially an overflow hub. And hey, if planes are pretty full, why not?