MSPeconomist

There weren't any FF programs in the 1960s or 1970s. In fact, IIRC Randy Petersen credits AA for starting the first FF program in 1981, with other legacy USA carriers following during the next few years.

feetwet

What I recieved from Delta. Read the last sentence.

As a Diamond Medallion member, you receive unlimited complimentary
upgrades which are subject to availability. They may not be available
on all flights or in all markets and are not valid for travel to/from,
or to Transatlantic or Transpacific destinations. Complimentary
upgrades are not available on flights to/from South American cities that
are serviced with our BusinessElite product (i.e., Buenos Aires,
Argentina; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Lima,
Peru; Caracas, Venezuela). For travel booked using a SkyMiles Companion
Certificate, neither the paid primary passenger nor the companion
passenger will be eligible for complimentary upgrades.

When making reservations on delta.com, over the phone, at the airport,
or through a travel agent, members will receive an automatic
complimentary upgrade request. Once the reservation is ticketed, the
upgrade will be cleared based on the confirmation window, availability,
fare class, and time of request.

If available, upgrades for all Medallions (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, and
Silver) are cleared at time of ticketing for Y class fares. For Diamond
Medallions, they clear 5 calendar days in advance for B, M, S, H, Q, K,
L, U, T, X, V and E class fares. Clearance starts with B class and
continues in descending order. If Medallion level and fare class are
equal, time of ticketing will be the tie breaker.

MSPeconomist

This is awkwardly stated and doesn't reflect the upcoming change that E fares won't be upgradeable. Maybe it's technical, but the tiebreaker should be time of upgrade request which is often but not necessarily the same as time of ticketing.

mnredfox

This, +1

And don't forget that DL used to and still probably does give more availability to those with Amex cards, with the highest card (Reserve) probably getting the best availability. DL is married to Amex.

DiverDave

^ The original Delta Frequent Flier program (not Skymiles) was started in 1981. Though the FC program was in effect before then.

http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/...e.php?key=2926

David

bennos

Not saying you're wrong, but when one poster says "here's a link to the policy" and another poster says "I spoke to my friend a year ago", I'll go with the documentation over the rumor.

On a related note, a couple of years ago I split up a couple on the UG list. There were (IIRC) 6 open seats. The husband was #5 on the list, I was #6, and the wife was #7. Husband was very confused, as he and his wife were on the same PNR. The GA basically said "the computer sorts the list, so it must be right". Given that it was exceedingly unlikely that I purchased my ticket in between their two tickets, the only logical explanation was that the husband had an Amex and so was bumped ahead of me on the list (same fare class, but I purchased my ticket first).

Needless to say, of the three of us only the husband sat in coach

TrojanTraveler

On several occasions Mrs. TrojanTraveler and I have been separated on the upgrade list. Same PNR, same status, and neither of us have the Reserve card. There can be IT issues with the upgrade list.

MSPeconomist

If this was the gate upgrade list, and not some list for upgrades at the window that agents supposedly cannot see, being on the same PNR doesn't matter then as companions are prioritized according to their own rank at that time. If the wife had lower status, this would have been correct.

relangford

Unlike AA, which shows my start date, DL doesn't, so I'm not sure of the exact date, maybe in mid-1980s. Since I am getting old, my memory is getting bad. In any case, I joined the first year (a friend was a DL employee who told me about "a new program" over the Flying Colonels and like the AA program).

indufan

I personally met the AA guy who started their program and the Delta guy who started their program at the same time. This was also when I met Kevin Pinto before he became world famous here at Flyertalk.