Its for certain. Delta Air Lines does not care about processing your upgrade. Team board-last DOES NOT MATTER!!
I am Diamond with Delta and its been a few months since I have flown them. I know United gets a terrible wrap (wait , don't all the US carriers) but in the last 4 months as a Plat with United, I have been upgraded from coach to First on the aircraft by the gate agent 3 times, each time the agent seemed excited to do their job and to hand out an upgrade.
Well Delta really stinks at this. I went RNO-SLC-ATL-FLL. This is actually the only non-red eye option which was my real reason for moving to UA. Reno is not a good airport for DL.
RNO-SLC--- 2 standbys ended up in Comfort + 4 A,B , My companion and I sat in 17 A, B. I will be happy to PM the screen shots for those who do not believe it. These standbys got those seats while we were still in the boarding area. I went up to the desk and asked why, she said she paged us but we did not answer! BS!!! We were in the gate area.
SLC-ATL - Upgraded since this flight was using an RPU...
ATL-FLL -
#1 and
#2 for 1 seat. We had no carry - ons so we waited to the every end. T-25 we get paged and I give my companion the upgrade and keep myself
#1 on the list. I wait until final boarding call. My companion texts and says seat next to him is open along with 4-5 other seats. I ask the agent and he told me if I do not board now, I will lose my seat. So I board the plane and take my Comfort + seat which was not a bad seat but still... Gate agent gets on at T-5 hands something to flight attendant and flight attendant points out open 1st class seats. Gate agent says no time, walks out and the door closes (This is according to my companion who was sitting in 2C)
This ended up being a long flight. Anyone leaving ATL yesterday evening knows what I am talking about. I was 90 minutes on the ground plus air time.
I was happy with my seat, I do not expect upgrades so much anymore. What bothers me is when they are available and not processed or not done correctly. Here is a fact:
I flew on 3 Delta Flights yesterday and none of them had good customer service. From bad gate agents to lazy flight attendants, none of them with a smile on their face. United on the contrary has been excellent. They are really trying to surge and DL is sinking and they are sinking FAST. Only thing going for DL and I mean ONLY think is the entertainment screens.