ornulfkittelsen

Yes, please don't miss understand. I think they are great value. Just a mess when you try to nail that seat up front. hehehe. I got all mine too but had several calls and arguments with gate agent for every single one.

Not complaining though. I got the upgrade. :-)

SCEflyer

Thanks for your response. I called DL, and asked about the first segment. I am not certain that I received a reliable answer in regard to not seeing a second seat map. (The flight takes 1:10 at most, and I have a C + aisle seat, so I am not concerned about that leg.) Otherwise everything seems to be in order.

rylan

My guess is your ticket isn't coded properly for the upgrade on all of the other segments, and you're unlikely to get an agent to realize that it isn't done right and know how to correct it.

dmorbust

I just called to use a GUC on an ATL-JNB leg in May (yes I know that's a tough upgrade) and the DM line agent told me that she couldn't put me on the waitlist because the system wasn't letting her / the list was closed - apparently there were already too many names down for just the waitlist. That really shocked me - what's the harm in adding one more name? Should I play agent roulette or has this ever happened to anyone before?

sethb

Try another agent; what have you got to lose? There isn't supposed to be a limit to the list size. On domestic flights, we've seen over 100 on the list.

HoffyNYC

This brings a question to mind and I apologize if it has been covered already elsewhere - what is the priority for clearing GUCs at the gate, or prior to check in for that matter? There have been a few stories of GUC upgrade waitlists closed/maxed out, which if true implies that fare class may not factor into priority (unless it’s just a systems thing). It’s probably not true, but it does bring one personal experience to mind in early March, SYD-LAX-NYC. At booking cleared GUCs for my wife and I on the outbound NYC-LAX-SYD using my DM GUCs (she is PM) and waitlisted for return. Then, she needed to change outbound routing for a business trip and DL split the PNR, let her keep her confirmed outbound upgrade LAX-SYD, and also let her remain waitlisted for the return even though it was now on a separate PNR, which I thought was great. At check in at SYD, 2 D1 seats were available for upgrade. I was #2 and my wife was #13 (agent said that there were 25 DMs on the flight). We were both on T fares for that segment. Given that most GUC users would likely be DMs and that I was only on a T fare, I was surprised to be #2, although I guess that's not impossible (agent said my wife was #13 because she was PM, which makes sense). Made me wonder though if DMs are cleared in some other priority, such as date/time added to the waitlist regardless of fare class? Just seems unlikely that there was only 1 other DM on a fare higher than T on a list of up to 12 DMs trying to use GUCs.

bgriff

The short answer is, I don't think anyone knows (perhaps even inside Delta). It is possible, however, that there were other upgrade methods in play -- I believe something like the old SWUs can still be obtained through the SkyBonus program?

Given that GUCs are quite limited in inventory with a max of 4 per DM per year you would not expect to see very many flights with a lot of competition to use them, though it is not surprising that SYD-LAX would be a flight where such competition exists.

DiverDave

They are not easy to use for sure.

I just applied my last two for an upcoming trip HSV-ATL-SFO-ATL-HSV. Of course only the two short legs were available.

When I checked my reservation, the ATL-SFO showed upgrade requested, but SFO-ATL showed Medallion upgrade requested. So I called back and got that fixed.

Sigh.

David

vgb2001

Adding my new experience, very much similar to that of OP.
Was wait listed for weeks RUC on SAN-MSP. All looked good and I had called several times to make "sure" that everything was coded properly.
Upgrade did not clear in advance. I check in and I'm not even on the upgrade list. On the phone now with Diamond line, and Carla confirms there is an issue with how the RUC was applied. She's now trying to fox it BUT, there are onbly 2 seats l;eft at this point. And we're 22hr before the flight, so plenty of time for these seats to be taken by purchase or SDC.

RUC IS A MESS!

Sabai

From Delta.dumb: "As the airline industry faces unprecedented challenges, information technology is increasingly a competitive differentiator."

Ah irony, where is thy sting?

chasgoose

This happened to me with GUC's. You have to make sure that the agent applying the UC inhibits the system from trying to upgrade you based on status. Otherwise the system gets confused because it receives two separate requests to upgrade through different means and never adds you to the waitlist.

BenA

As others have said, it would be really amazing if someone could post all the steps an agent needs to take to properly code a GUC. For bonus points, any evidence we can see that it's been done correctly afterwards would be great too (e.g. "Medallion Upgrade Requested" > "Upgrade Requested", appearance of a second J seat map, etc.)

For other tasks, I've learned the right words to use (for example, "can you please ensure this ticket is reissued", or "can you try a long sell on that award seat"), which have been incredibly helpful when I reach an inexperienced agent.

GUCs are still a bit of a black hole, though... so if Delta isn't going to bother to fix this obvious problem, we might as well work together to try to solve it ourselves.

Esltroy

Ok so I am in a crazy RUC. I chose the 8 regional certificates. I used one on a silly MSP to SLC flight because I was sick. Then I used two to go back and forth to OGG. This is where everything went awry. On the way to OGG, I was upgraded for my first leg because of my status. Then...my entire trip was cancelled. No record of it anywhere. I was in LAX, and I had no flights scheduled to go to OGG. The amazing diamond desk was able to get all of my flights rebooked and I was in first the rest of the way there and the way back. None of my RUC were used. Now I notice that I only have six certificates left. One shows up for being used on the MSP-SLC flight. And six that can still be used. One has gone completely missing.

Readynow

I no longer expect upgrades as a Plat.....this benefit is no longer part of my value proposition with Delta. Would rather they go the AA way with vouchers, but unlike delta, AA actually knows how they work. I have given up on RUC as I refuse to be required to badger delta employees to due their jobs...

Medallion upgrades are history and a worthless benefit...

sethb

I've had flights disappear (or have me flying to another country) when I tried to do some SDC SFO-NYC due to delayed flights. Fortunately, the agent was able to re-establish my original routing.

I'd suggest just not worrying about it. You're possibly one RUC ahead (or you just got medallion upgrades and you're where you should be).