I have a flight this week IAH-MSY on a 753 with 24 FC seats. I am Gold with NW. As of yet, my upgrade has not cleared even though 13 seats are showing open on the seat map. I am well within the 3 calendar days timeframe.

This is actually my first time flying Continental. I've heard a lot about the difficulty of clearing upgrades on some routes, but IAH-MSY on a 753 is the last one I expected problems with. If I don't clear prior to check-in, do I need to do anything at the airport?

For some reason, the SFO-IAH redeye I'm coming in on is completely sold out in FC. Anyone here in SF know what's happening this week? I'm guessing it's the Oracle convention - colleagues have reported no hotel availability downtown - but couldn't say for sure.