Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
WRONG. Upgrades are a published benefit of the DL FF program. They're not random gifts that employees are free to grant or deny on a whim, especially in instances like this where upgrades are clearly available and should have been processed according to DL's published priority rules but aren't due to either employee laziness or the desire of certain employees to steal those upgrades from their employer and their employer's customers in order to give them instead to friends and family (nonrevs).
Show me where it says you have the absolute right to be upgraded? In my book if you didn't pay for a first class (comfort+) seat you aren't entitled to one until your ticket says it and your butt is in the seat. It's always listed as a complimentary benefit that is subject to availability.
You, nor I, nor the poster knows the true reason for who got upgraded and why. Those people could have been on full fare tickets. They could have been from another flight and had priority due to a cancellation. Delta's published priority rules apply in standard situations. This was a far from standard situation and while I've known for the vast majority of the time for gate agents to upgrade based on the published priorities you don't know what happens behind the scenes.