upgrade question
 

I travel Friday from ERI-MEM (through DTW).

My return is Monday. MEM-ATL-DTW-ERI. My ATL-DTW upgrade has cleared but not my MEM-ATL.... anyone know why this would be? I see plenty of seats open in F.... i don't understand why it upgraded me on one leg but not another.

Another strange bit... there are no early morning flights between MEM-DTW. I couldn't find anything before 10am. I just found that strange that there aren't more flights (especially morning) between the hubs. Is this due to some kind of scale back of MEM?

Upgrade inventory is opened up not based on how many seats are for sale, but how many DL THINKS it can sell. Hub to hub might have a LOT of elites cued for the upgrade.

The MEMDTW schedule has been decimated as of late.

Not very surprising. They seem to hold back more seats on some hub-to-hub routes for last minute sales, SDC's, IRROP's, etc. There's an 8:35AM flight to CVG. They seem to somewhat interleave the DTW and CVG hub flights from MEM.

As to your UG, DL is offering paid FC tickets for MEM-ATL for as little as $59 more than the available coach fare. It is likely that they are holding back UGs, hoping to sell all of the FC seats. Hope springs eternal.

If you search by schedule, you will find MEM to ATL itineraries departing as early as 6:00 AM.

Early Monday morning is a heavy time for business and elite travelers. I would expect DL to hold back upgrade inventory.