Originally Posted by
RobOnLI
NW & DL do battlefield (in other words, at airport) upgrades differently. DL does not use time of check-in as any qualifer in where you appear on the upgrade list. NW does.
On DL, as you experienced, their criteria for at-airport upgrade position is elite level followed by fare class followed by time of upgrade request. Time of upgrade request is generally the same time you purchased your ticket. So it sounds like your friend's ticket was processed first when the two tickets were purchased under the same PNR.
-RM
In this case, I doubt the OP had they been faster would have gotten the UG. With 16 on the list, expect the top 2/3 be plats, next 3-5 as golds, and rest silvers. Likely only the plats got the UG if they were lucky.