Originally Posted by
DeltaJoe
I am Plat and going out to DFW at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday night (April 9). I am supposed to get my UG notice 5 days out (meaning tomorrow) but was shocked to see the UG confirmation email at 6:06 p.m. today, a full day early. There are still 12 seats open after I received my UG.
OTOH, there were 14 seats open on the morning of my ATL-SLC run two weeks ago and I didn't clear until I got to the gate. Sweated that one, for sure. Of course that was hub-to-hub so guess they were holding back for FCM.
This is not early, it is right on schedule. Despite DL advertising 5, 3, and 1 day windows, the upgrades are actually run at 6, 4, and 2 days prior to departure. Since DL runs one sweep a day instead of hitting every flight at the 24 hour mark, this makes sense... suppose you had a 5:00 AM flight and it was run at 5:00 PM the day before, that's only 12 hours. And chances are you're already checked in by this point and on the airport upgrade list.
The upgrade sweep starts at 5:00 PM Eastern time. In previous years, it seems to have run much faster, taking maybe 20-30 minutes. Recently, it has taken as long as several hours. Emails are sent thereafter, but keep in mind the time you receive the email may be well after the sweep has run, so you cannot rely on its timestamp for much.