My Op-Ups Have Happened Prior to the Gate Taking Over
The first time I was ever op-uped was on an LGW-BOS flight back in December, 2001 (my total RT price was $308). Y was oversold; I was a GM at the time, and I was bumped into BE (this is when the 767s had two BE cabins) when I checked in at the front counter.
As a member of DL's top tier, I've been op-uped once on a misconnect, and the upgrade took place at 9 am for a 2100 flight; another time when our JFK-FCO segment was cancelled due to a MX and we accepted a re-route to MXP where we got BE seating; and another time DUB-ATL where Y was oversold.
Last year, I thought I was going to be upgraded to BE at the scanning machine ATL-LGW, but I ended up being upgraded to exit row seat 10A when a new boarding pass popped out of the machine.
I've had DL FAs twice thank me for my business deep in Y and apologize that they couldn't move me up to BE.