Originally Posted by
jkirsch
Curious for advice as I'm relatively new to intl upgrades on DL. Tonight, my wife (a PM) was flying on an M fare from ACC-JFK. She requested an upgrade with miles over a month ago and things were looking great. However she never cleared and the flight went out with 9+ seats empty.
This seems absolutely absurd for an old-guard AA flyer. DeltaAssist is telling some BS story that "sometimes upgrades don't clear" but this just seems like incompetent agents at outstations.
Frankly, I'd like them to allow her to upgrade on any fare for her next trip to Ghana though know this is probably dreaming. More importantly would be good to understand what's going on. Why even pay extra and take a gamble when you might not clear on an empty flight????
This sounds like no upgrade inventory being released early even though there were premium cabin seats available. Those seats were available for upgrades on the day of travel, but because the upgrade was requested with miles rather than a SWU, it could not/was not processed at the gate. This is in accordance with the DL FF program rules, although some DL GAs can and do pull miles for upgrades at the gate.