I suppose it could have been a "direct" flight. I'll confess, I don't know the exact definition of that. I did get upgraded on all the other non-CRJ routes (1 battlefield) for that 7 segment itinerary, but just not that first one. And that one definitely did show R availability at 24 hours out on ExpertFlyer. But shortly after that, EF seemed to lose the ability to search that flight by fare class. So maybe there was a monkey in the mix somewhere there.

The pax next to me on JAX-MSP last night was a GE and had done OLCI on the morning of the flight. She grabbed an R seat then, but perhaps there were just plenty available as that flight was light.