So far this year on CO I have yet to get an operational upgrade. However, this tends to also be a tough time of the travel year for me to get them on DL as well (low season on my destinations at the moment.) On DL international, I tend to get operational upgrades about ½ the time when flights are overbooked by 30. When flights are overbooked by 40 or more, my success ran around ¾ . It also helps if you know the gate agents, as they still have some input into the decision of who gets moved up. The computer prints out a list of candidates, and then the agents usually go down the list, but sometimes you luck out. I have had a few “SGB” agents who have refused to move me up the list.
The List – The list I think is rated based on your status and price of ticket. I do not know how it works, but from my experience, PMs are always at the top, only out weighted by PMs on full Y or NonRev. From everything I have seen, MM seems to be the same as silver. While FC is really worthless, I have been moved up once as the agent told me there were several people on the list and based on the fact that I was FC, this told him I have been through the trenches and he gave the seat to me. A case where the agent over rode the list, although, I was on the list.
During the high travel season, I came to know several flights that would always wind up being oversold. While I did not go out of my way to book on these flights, I knew what might happen, the pros and cons. One time they moved me up (JFK/DUB) and when they were done, they had still not found enough seats. They offered to fly me J/F/F(JFK/London/DUB) to my final destination, along with $800. A total of a 3 hour delay, a bit of travel and I was wealthier and home.
Now if the seats in Biz/E are already full, there is not a prayer for you. As we all know DL claims all the seats are full. I have not found this to be the fact, although there are times when they are full. Good Luck!!
[This message has been edited by JRF (edited 02-05-2001).]