Also the OP states they are from Ponder TX which from a mapquest search is near Denton .. which makes DFW their home airport.

With SOOOO many upper tier (EXP/PLT) traveling from the DFW airport, the higher tier you are . the better.

DFW is the one airport I connect at (ORD is my main other connection) where even as EXP my upgrades do not clear until close to flight time. It seems that Revenue Management leaves the inventory at zero for much longer on ex-DFW flights than they do at other stations. Never understood this, and have always cleared, but sometime the clearance has been at the gate.