<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jimrpa:
I believe if a non-elite has leftover upgrade points, they can be used on an "as available" basis, at the gate, after all elites requesting upgrades have been cleared.</font>
This is true. I lost my SM status this year because last year was an almost no travel year for me. I had 21 upgrade points leftover. This year has been an increase in travel for me and I've been able to use my points 95% of the time to upgrade to FC; other than the CRJs, I've had the backseat only once on one segment out of 4 round-trips.
MARTINO,
After reading many posts on upgrading ability and my own personal experiences through the last few years, my opinion is that it really depends on where you fly out of that plays the big part in the success rate for upgrades. If you're coming out of a hub to a popular destination then your chances are lower. If you can fly out of a smaller regional airport (that doesn't only have CRJs but mainline DL metal) then your success rate will be higher.
Good luck!