Thanks for the welcome. Yes living in Atl I am stuck with Delta as I hate non direct flights. On international I have been using BA on some flights and also AF. If its a 777 or 767 long I am ok with Delta FC. My main reason for not always using Delta on international is the small planes and shoddy FC seating and service. Who is going to pay FC fees for a seat which doesn't even recline.............

I am lucky as my company goes on trust (very old fashioned no receipts) so I can pay to upgrade. It would be just like an itinery change.

I am trying to figure out if buying Y, M or B will give me a 95% chance of upgrade and then if I don't in the window then I can just swop to a paid FC and pay the extra circa 400-500. On my typical atl-sea or atl-lax routes even if I got an upgrade 50% I would save 6k a year based on two flights a month.