Originally Posted by
HWGeeks
I really dislike when this happens, it's a slap in the face to those of us who pay extra for main or C+ to see someone who paid for BE sitting in 1st. Especially when there are silver + medallions who are sitting in the back. I saw it happen yesterday some people on the upgrade list for C+ losing out to those with BE tickets because they went to the gate agent and flirted their way to a good seat before the upgrades auto kick in. I know it happened not only because I could see the seats getting taken and basic next to seats on the standby list, but because I was also sitting next to the gate agent because I was hoping for the 800 dollars they had offered to miss the flight. Unfortunately for me the flight took off without leaving anyone behind.
Lots of Medallions will decline C+ upgrades if they can't get seats together, don't want a middle seat, or prefer exit rows, and any Medallion (even DM) traveling with 2 or more other non-Medallions on the same reservation will not be eligible for upgrades to F/C+, so it's very likely that the system was working as designed. Keep in mind that BE passengers are also ineligible for mileage earning, any status benefits, and will be the absolute bottom of the list for reaccom in the event of IRROPs. For most of us, giving all that up in exchange for a one in a million shot at *maybe* jumping to C+ or F is a poor tradeoff given most flights these days are full up front well in advance of boarding time.
Does it stink when my last-minute $1200 ticket lands me a seat in the back third of the plane while C+ is full of no-status kettles who paid 6,000 miles to upgrade their $250 main cabin tickets? Sure, but it's not a "slap in the face" because DL doesn't fill their cabins from front to back based on a rank-ordering of who paid the most for the flight...