Hidden Fare Bucket
 

Ever since Delta hid their upgrade fare buckets from ExpertFlyer is there another way to see that information?

For ExpertFlyer I've found the 'Z' bucket closely correlates with Regional (domestic) and Global (international) availability. Globals obviously have last seat availability domestically.

If you're logged in to Delta.com it will show on an individual flight basis whether there is availability and for what type of upgrade instrument. This doesn't help in terms of alerts but I would use Z in that case.

Would you say that same bucket is accurate for medallion upgrades?

Medallion comp upgrades come from SU (C+) and OU (FC) buckets. They generally do not limit inventory in SU for comp C+ upgrades, but they will almost always hold back seats from OU bucket until the gate and OU does not correlate to Z bucket availability.

So on those related upgrades there is really no way to tell if they are going to clear early?

no, one route that has the same aircraft that another route has has too many variables. DL yield management has a lot of calculations for fare bucket per flight, and even if there are eg 5 OU seats available on 2 flights, the ticketing support team will review against internal DL rules before releasing seats to clear. They may not release them and then it becomes a gate control issue. I've seen gate agents not release upgrade space and I've seen seats clear right at ticketing. For flights I want to clear I find calling in or texting can sometimes make it happen, but nothing that I can count on.