Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
UA flights to Hawaii vary wildly on CPUs - from everyone on the waitlist plus more (non-revs), to none. Your chances are pretty decent. As for Delta, they’re running a distant third in capacity to Hawaii among the legacy carriers, so their frequent flyer population (probably roughly same size as UA’s) suffers much lower upgrade chances. That’s why you pay for the front or (probably) ride in the back on Delta - more competition for fewer seats.
Yes, thIs sounds pretty accurate with regards to Delta. My girlfriend and I just flew to Kauai last week and both got upgraded to FC at the 72 hour GM window. Everyone on the list got UGd on that flight, plus there were 3 or 4 empty FC seats leftover. Havent ever seen that on a DL flight before! More to your point, however; the return flight from LIH had no available FC seats for UG and we paid to ride up front, given that it was a long redeye. Our return from HNL next week is on Delta and we paid for that FC seat as well, albeit at a pretty decent price.