Christefan

Giving Business One seats to non ref staff members while status members were listed to be upgraded.

I arrived at the gate in AMS for my Delta metal flight to ATL, where I inquired on my chances for an upgrade using my Global upgrade certificate. I was told that I was the second on the list but that the flight had checked in full in Delta One. Due to KLM handling this flight, the upgrade standby list is not available until after departure (great for transparency!!!), After departure, I had to learn that two seats (2A and 1G) where given to Delta employees using PSUP (positive space/upgrade request) which ranks 28 on the Delta upgrade status list. My global upgrade request should have been UP2A which ranks 19 on the Delta list.

The fact that Delta/KLM would give preference to their own employees over paying status customers just reflects that all these marketing slogans "we care so much about you and your business" are just not true. In fact, the opposite is true! Delta will actively support nepotism over customer loyalty. While it is getting harder and harder to even use a Global upgrade certificate, with the deck stacked against you like this, why even bother...

I finally received a reply from Delta's "we care" department in which they offered me an apology and 9000 miles for my account, never ever trying to explain how this could have happened or even owning up to this clear violation of their own rules. My request NOT to orbit this complaint to management was taken literally, even though it was meant as a sarcastic remark since I have NEVER EVER received a response from Delta's management on issues where Delta was clearly in the wrong.

Am I wrong or was this a legitimate complaint?