Originally Posted by
TheMadBrewer
If you've purchased a Y/B/M fare (for international) and there is inventory in the appropriate upgrade fare bucket (Z for DL, U for NW), then you can confirm the upgrade ahead of time.
For NW TATL/TPAC upgrades, U is used for M and discount B (rare, IME) fares; there's another bucket for Y and full unrestricted B (like BEERT) fares, I believe Z class. These are the same buckets as are used for mileage upgrades.