Originally Posted by
canadiancow
Ah, that's interesting. But I was referring more to the setting an alarm in the middle of the night to request an upgrade, which is still sometimes necessary
True, but it's not necessary nearly as often as it used to be for most people.
Also, upgrades worked very differently 4-5 years ago:
It was pretty much "first come first served" and you could increase your upgrade % substantially if you knew the trick described above. Then AC started zeroing out R availability at T-168h (the infamous R games), so knowing this trick became even more valuable.
Nowadays, I often find it makes little/no difference whether I request my upgrade at T-168h or T-160h. I'll only set an alarm clock to wake me in the middle of the night if I have reason to believe availability will be R1 (or R2) at T-168h.