Yep, you're right about AFW being the source for regional flights. You're also right, this flight tracking IS a fun game.
Careful, that can lead to a slippery slope...
First it's tracking flights, then it's optimizing all your mileage earning, then it's playing games with the credit card companies for miles, then it's on to mileage runs and the like... I once flew
DFW-MEM-MKE-MSP-DTW-TOL on NW since it was my last domestic trip of the year and I needed those extra few miles that I got over just flying DFW-DTW-TOL to put me just over 50k for the year! (And the ticket was all of $10 more.)
After looking at the flight tracker info it appears that a likely scenario for me if, and it's a big if, my order goes "Prepared for shipment" by Sunday is it will be on flight FDX90 departing Shanghai at 10:55 PM local time on Monday. FDX90 arrives in Memphis at 12:15 AM local time on Tuesday. Then it's on to FDX531 departing Memphis at 4:29 PM on Tuesday and arriving to DFW at 5:33 PM Tuesday. With luck it'll make it through sorting and be on a truck for delivery on Wednesday.
Obviously I'm interested in any shipments people here have that went from Shanghai to Memphis rather than Shanghai to Anchorage so please post your tracking info for the good of the community.
Indeed, I'm quite curious if anything will go via Memphis. If my laptop doesn't make the ANC flight today, and nobody else reports a Memphis stop first, should find out on Monday if I ship then or not...they can still ship to me on Tuesday via ANC and make the Wednesday estimated delivery date.
Also, I don't get the PVG-MEM flight. This is getting deep into more plane geekery, but the PVG-MEM flight is shown as being on a Boeing 772LR/F by FlightAware. That's the single Boeing 777 Freighter version, more properly referred to as such or as a "777F", which is a modification of the 772LR. As with most freighter versions of planes, the 777F is designed to carry more cargo and less fuel because cargo usually doesn't mind a few more layovers than humans do, and it's more fuel efficient to stop at places like Anchorage when you can. While the 772LR it's derived from has a 9380nm (10800mi) range, the 777F has a 4900nm (5600mi) range. The PVG-ANC flight, for comparison, is on an MD-11F with a 3950nm (4550mi) range. PVG-ANC is 4308mi. PVG-MEM is 7433mi, WAY over the range of the 777F. So it has to be flying severely weight-restricted; the 777F specs are 37 pallets (LD7) vs 26 pallets for the MD-11F...but that PVG-MEM 777F is certainly not carrying nearly as much cargo as it can hold, since it would never make it to Memphis, or it's a completely empty repositioning flight.
Anyways, my basic point of all that is summed up in the last bit there...there's a decent chance that the PVG-MEM flight is just a repositioning flight, and not even hauling cargo! It makes no sense to haul a 1/3 - 1/2 load of cargo to Memphis when it could just fly to Anchorage first, either as a normal unload/load stop, or even just a brief refueling stop if time is a issue so it could carry its max capacity. Guess we'll find out on Monday, when the next PVG-MEM goes out, and if the schedule holds no PVG-ANC goes until Tuesday.
