This has to be a record for a successful upgrade: 330 days!

I bought 2 tickets for a family vacation JFK-CDG-NCE-JFK. I also got 4 award tickets for family members. The award tickets were BE from the start; the "pay" tickets were M class ($1445 each), to be upgraded using PMUs. The last reservation was made at 12 midnight 331 days before the 7/6 return flight, in August 2001. I picked up the tickets the next day at a NYC CTO and turned in 2001 PMUs, which would expire anyway. The outbound flights were immediately upgraded. The return was not.

My son and I, with the M-class tickets, were at the very top of the upgrade wait-list for the 7/6 flight NCE-JFK, with my Platinum priority (one record for both of us). We sat on that wait-list for 330 days, until July 5, when we cleared approximately 14 hours before flight time. We got the last two BE seats. Although all six of us were not together, the flight attendants helped to combine the two lone seats into a pair. All the flights were great, incidentally. No problems with lounge access, either.

So Delta kept me hanging for a record 330 days but came through in the end. I'm really not complaining at all because the NCE-JFK flight was so full right from the start that I can understand them holding back upgrades in the hope of selling those seats. When Delta did not sell them, they honored the wait-list, just as they should. A good experience.

Bruce