There is no fraud and there is no hoax. What part of "space available" do you not understand? "Space available" seats, upgraded or not, are seats under airport control only (not confirmed until airport check-in or shortly before departure at the gate). If Northwest had an agreement with Midway to confirm Elite upgrades within the usual windows, they would have advertised "confirmed" upgrades.

Your thread and topic heading is the only hoax going on here. I hope you will use FlyerTalk's edit feature.