I don't even really understand what this means.

I usually fly paid F but last week I:

Flew PHL-RNO-DFW. No upgrade on PHL-DFW; was upgraded RNO-DFW while in flight to DFW.
Flew RNO-PHX-PHL. I was VDB'ed the first day and made taking the bump conditional on getting the upgrade for the next day, there were seats, so they booked me into J. Was upgraded RNO-PHX sometime overnight or in the morning.

{Corrected confusing information}