Mitt Romney’s Chief of Staff Criticizes This Dreaded Delta Upgrade
Jeff Edwards July 09, 2019
Mitt Romney’s Chief of Staff took to social media to complain that the complimentary upgrade he received on a recent Delta Air Lines flight was not much of a perk at all. Matt Waldrip told his Twitter followers that he was automatically moved from his preselected seat to middle seat in the main cabin and was not permitted to “downgrade” back to his preferred seat.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney’s Chief of Staff would have rather Delta Air Lines not bothered him with a complimentary upgrade on a recent red-eye flight. Matt Waldrip voiced his dissatisfaction about his unwelcome frequent flyer perk in a social media post.
The dreaded @Delta upgrade to a middle seat on a red eye strikes again. Nothing has made me question my loyalty to @delta more than the lack of ability to mitigate this #FirstWorldProblems
— Matt Waldrip (@mattwaldrip) July 8, 2019
“The dreaded @Delta upgrade to a middle seat on a red eye strikes again,” Waldrip posted on Twitter July 7th. “Nothing has made me question my loyalty to @delta more than the lack of ability to mitigate this.”
Although Waldrip was clearly unhappy to find that the airline took it upon themselves to upgrade him to a less desirable seat on the overnight flight, he also took pains to make clear that the frustrating predicament was at best an inconvenience. The powerful Washington insider even added the hashtag “#FirstWorldProblems” to help put the matter into perspective.
View from the Wing’s Gary Leff, who first reported that the chief of staff had called out the dominant carrier at Salt City International Airport (SLC), points out that Waldrip was likely upgraded from a seat in the main cabin to a Comfort+ seat. Although the Comfort+ seat comes with a few extra inches of legroom and other perks like dedicated overhead bin space, along with complimentary beer and wine, Waldrip is not alone in questioning if being moved to a middle seat in the same cabin is actually an upgrade at all.
While Waldrip may be seriously reconsidering his loyalty to Delta, the frequent flyer may find that taking his business elsewhere would likely be highly inconvenient for someone who splits his time between Utah and Washington, D.C. Delta operates more flights out of its SLC hub than all of the airport’s other tenants combined.
[Featured Image: Delta/ Flickr]
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I can't believe an article was actually written about this.
LOL to the above "Mittens"
There are some of us who are tall enough that extra "only couple inches" makes a big difference for. Even if it does mean a middle seat.
Delta clearly allows you to opt in or opt out of a Comfort+ upgrade, and anyone with even an ounce of common sense or experience would realize that the middle seats in Comfort+ are far more likely to be the only ones left open for free 'upgrades.' Sounds like Mittens needs to hire a more thorough chief.
The same thing happened to me recently on British. On a 747, my wife and I had aisle-across Economy seats that we paid extra for, but on the return flight LHR-PHX, I was "upgraded" to a middle seat in the 4-across center, that had perks of slightly better food and complimentary drinks. Furthermore, the under-seat space for all seats in this section was blocked, which meant that I had to put my small carryon in the overhead. I had to keep climbing over people to access the medical gear I can usually just reach down for.