Jerry, what I do is to have a longer blunt tip needle that I stick down into the bottle and I pull the juice into the syringe by raising the plunger. Go slowly and you'll get less air. Then I hold the syringe, point up, remove the long blunt tip needle, put on the needle that comes with the phoenix's, flick the syringe a few times with my finger (I'm sure you've seen a nurse do this on tv or movies), this will cause air bubbles to rise. Then I hold a paper towel at the needle part, depress the plunger, til I can see the juice rising through the needle itself. Once I just have a bit of juice squirting out, then I insert the needle into the pheonix, flip it upside down and fill. This could be overkill, but it really is the best way to get as much air as possible out of the syringe.
I did fill my bc the other night when it was half full. It got very airy, little vapor, and leaked just a little bit at the battery end, but then after vaping it down a bit, it straightened up. The draw went back to normal, I started getting the vapor back, and it quit leaking.