Thanks for your clear response. I will work on my Google expertise. I guess I had the right answer and it is just a matter of preference as to whether to pay up in the hopes of jumping someone for an upgrade. I guess depending on the price of a higher fare code it may be beneficial to pay up for additional MQM's. It would be interesting to know what other gold medallion members would be willing to pay for a chance to upgrade. I'm pretty happy getting a seat up front in coach and early boarding. It seems like a lot of work to start comparing all the different fare on the delta website.