Are you sure about this? My only (unsuccessful) experience on DL as an MVP had me on an expensive less-than-7-day ticket outbound and a cheaper 7+ day fare on the return. On the less expensive return, I was something like 18 of 18, but on the more expensive outbound, I started at something like 1 of 2 and ended up closer to 12 of 18 - there was clearly some logic to how some people ended up behind me...and I would assume they all weren't AS elites who checked in after me (although I suppose that is possible).