Hi Folks,

First of all, I fly SYR-JFK-SFO every week so I am no newbie to this route or the never-before-battlefield-clearing upgrades on this route with the 752.

Today was different.

First of all, it was great to see Burj in the Skyclub.

Second of all, the flight showed F0 C0 J0 all day but showed 2 F/C/J seats blocked on DL.com (I was #1 on the upgrade list with 2 seats available). At boarding time the flight was overbooked by 7. I was upgraded at boarding.

This is strange and not something that I have seen before. Basically, they blocked two seats so they couldn't be sold (and I was upgraded as a result). The way I see it there are several alternatives (in order of increasing probability below):

1 - LOWEST PROBABILITY - DL is blocking F/C/J seats for DMs

2 - LOW BUT NOT LOWEST - DL blocked seats anticipating the oversell

3 - LOW - These were FAM seats that opened up

Either way, I traded in my middle-no-recline seat on a redeye for 1A - So I am happy!

Any thoughts/perspectives - Anyone else seeing this?

TFD

PS: As usual, this upgrade did not clear at T-5 days. I bought this "U" fare a month ago.