I think it's likely that it's PMU. They do tend to process those requests immediately. I don't think you can game the system otherwise as far as getting your makeup requests processed earlier, it's all in time stamp sequence.
I wonder if they have every single scheduler calling MD-11 FO's for draft? Kind of a problem when you run out of reserves at the end of the month. I can't even guess how difficult it will be at the end of Nov and Dec.