NAS-ATL: During an extra section in Hurricane Irene (going to LGA) in 2011. My Sister, Mom, and I (All 3) of us got upgraded to F with my Silver status on the 757 which was ex-NW. A handful were only in Y once we were upgraded while boarding the plane. Probably on a dozen. The rest of the bird was empty in Y
The 757 was empty and it had a "9***" flight number, so I knew it was special. My Mom and Sister were like "Oh this is nice" but didn't really appreciate the work I put into getting them out of the Bahamas. They wanted to wait it out (yet everyone at the resort was leaving ahead of it.) Delta flew charter flights that were completely unnecessary, but I was so happy for it.
Also: on ATL-LGA they had an overbook status. I said to the gate agent (after we got off the plane from NAS) that we could spend the night in ATL if need be as our vacation was disrupted. Instead, they plugged my Mom and Myself to F on another PM-NW 757. This was insane as the flight ended up being completely full and bumpy up to LGA. My Mom and Sister were debating on who should be in F and my Mom ended up going up font. We were in Row 1, automatically, no questions asked. I was floored.
It's this trip that I still fly DL hardcore these days. They really took care of us and that same hurricane followed us up to the NYC area days later. My Sister and Mom still forget how brutal that vacation was for us and have zero loyalty to DL, and I was like 24 at the time. Sad.