bcm17

I posted this in SkyMiles already and figured I probably should've posted it here instead.

Hi there, I'm a long time browser of this site and have never had an account or posted but finally had a reason to today.

Here is my situation: I'm a flying blue platinum member who often goes to the US/Mexico for 1-2 months at a time. When I'm in the US I fly Delta and have almost always booked main cabin, and when I book main cabin I can immediately pick a comfort + seat if it's available. Then 1-2 mins later they'll send me an e-mail saying I was upgraded, even though I picked the seat myself.

Note: I can't pick it while I'm booking, I have to complete the booking, then go back to the booking and seat map and I can pick the seat right away.

I just booked a flight from LAS to FLL on Sept 1st and it didn't let me do this. It's telling me the C+ seat is $63.xx The booking class was Main Cabin (T) if that matters. Another thing I realized about it is that this could possibly be the furthest out I've ever booked a Delta flight. 40 days out, maybe that has something to do with it? Most of my bookings are last minute or at least in the 5-6 days before it.

Is it something with the booking class or are we (Flying blue platinums) not able to do this any longer? The last time I've done this was in March-April of this year when I was back getting vaccinated and it worked as usual plenty of times.

I did do a web search and I found this:

• Partner airline elite members will be eligible for day-of-departure upgrades only, with the exception of Aeromexico Club Premier members, whose upgrades can clear in advance or on the day-of-departure.

This has always been stated on their site because I know I've read it before, and it's not been true in the past. I've been able to pick my comfort plus seat 1-2 weeks out plenty of times. The only time I haven't been able to is if there wasn't one left at all on a last minute booking. The only way this can be true is if it's talking about first class, I do get upgraded to first class about 35-40% of Delta flights I'm on but I don't think that's ever happened before the day of. If this bullet point above is including C+ seats though, it's not been true in the past.

Does anyone know the specific reason this would be the case on the booking I mentioned? The reason is that I need to book 6-7 other flights and want to try and understand what's causing it before I book all those and end up having to cancel. I don't want to sit in regular main cabin seats, so I'll pay extra if I need to, but don't want to if it's not necessary.

Thanks for any help.

Edit: Oh and I've already spoke with Delta about it, and that CS rep told me that I've never been able to pick them as I'm saying I have 100+ times. Even though I told him I had done it this many times, he was certain it's never been the case. So yeah, tried asking Delta and that got me about nowhere. If nobody here knows I guess I'll just trial and error with different days out and different main cabin booking classes and see if that changes anything. Thanks again, everyone.

Fabo.sk

Delta Comfort Plus is somewhere between a class of service and a seating product...

this is what DL has to say:

Quote:

Complimentary Preferred Seating

so that would be in line with you being able to get the seating for free, and not being able to do it immediately in booking.

However also:

Quote:

Preferred Seating for Purchase

so that suggests that there is maybe a timescale where you can not yet purchase the seat for free?

tbaiyun

The rep is right, you will only get upgraded at the gate.

I think you may have mixed up with the preferred seat and comfort+? I have been FB plat for multiple years and have been flying DL on US-Canada, or US domestic routes, we are well at the bottom of their upgrade list, even below their own FO. There were, indeed, multiple occasions that I got upgraded to First on some elite-light routes, such as MSP-YEG, YUL-JFK, etc. But never anything on elite-heavy routes, e.g. ATL-DTW, ATL-JFK, etc.

I have never been upgraded in advance, every time, when sitting in the lounge, they cleared my upgrade and show me a new barcode in the APP.

bcm17

We are talking about a sample size of over 100 flights. I can absolutely assure you I've picked a comfort plus seat within 2-3 minutes after booking every single time except for the times when one wasn't available at all. I know the difference between preferred and C+. I can probably show you a few examples if I can figure out how to post pictures here.

And to be clear, they didn't 'clear' my upgrade themselves. I just booked the flight that's usually 2 legs and then immediately after booking go to my itinerary in the app and pick a C+ seat on both flights. Can't do it during booking, but can do it immediately after. So it's basically the same as picking the KLM seats right behind business (economy comfort I think it's called?) except that you can't do it during booking and immediately after, but it's always been 100% free. Then I get an e-mail. I think maybe you just didn't know that you're allowed to go into the seat map and pick C+ seats immediately after booking (for free) is the only difference.

The route I've most commonly got upgraded to first on is ATL-LAS which surprised me as it's not super short. It's been almost every time on that route in either direction. Also twice in a row on SLC-TPA. But the first upgrades only happen right before the flight.

Let me find screenshots to show what I'm talking about.

Also I have about $1k delta credit to play around with and trial and error this to see if I can figure it out exactly or figure out if it's changed recently.

bcm17

It won't let me post pictures because I don't have 5 posts but here's gyazo links.

https://gyazo.com/fdd06509a595a080ac38055a7cd6b9e7

Here is where I booked a flight 4 days in advance at 18:30

https://gyazo.com/3b6532bfd193514aae4c9c48a87ecde3

Here is the upgrade confirmation 40 mins later (As I remember this takes time to come, 40 mins sounds about right. I probably picked the seat immediately after booking).

https://gyazo.com/94ade06c347b86cd7a5aa8624fa06068

Here you can see they're C+. I could show about 100 other flights where it's the same.

I'm gonna go play around with this credit I have now and see what I can find out. I'll test some flights that are about a week from now and see if it's any different than it used to be. That one I tried yesterday was 40 days out and that honestly could be the longest out that I've booked a flight in almost a decade. So I'm hoping that nothing has changed and that has something to do with it. I'll post later on tomorrow what I can figure out by booking various flights with my credit.

dc9northwest

I could choose Comfort Plus for free during COVID until... this April or so, but not anymore. And AFAIK, not before COVID struck either.

bcm17

Okay at least someone knows what I'm talking about so other people don't think I'm crazy. This helps me confirm that it's changed though. And FYI the furthest back I can find where I was doing this is May 2019 (I thought it was a bit further back than that, but it wasn't) and a few other times between then and July 2019, so I don't think it was only COVID. But it's definitely done now, I did a test booking yesterday for 3rd August and it didn't let me upgrade immediately.

Was the 2 free bags on every booking a covid thing too? I noticed that last year and was surprised, but I didn't ever check 2 bags before I started playing tennis so wouldn't have noticed prior to that.

bcm17

2nd bag is still free for me on a LAS-JFK booking that I made in C+ in Sept. So I guess that's always been the case. Glad it wasn't just a covid thing.

There was even one flight during covid where I booked through expedia for some weird reason (never do that usually), had to change return flight and the rep put me in basic economy on an aeromexico flight without warning me (my original was regular economy) and even though I was basic economy I still had 2 free bags and was in seat 5C. It was also strange with that particular booking that it was a nonstop AM operated flight with AM ticket # and I was forced to check in on the Delta app. I know Delta owns half of AM or something but that still seemed weird to me. Anyways, it seems like the 2 free bags is a permanent thing for FB plat.

tbaiyun

OP, I would suggest you disable the links as you have included your last name, PNR, etc. in the screenshots, that someone may easily retrieve your personal data from there.

I would rather trust you, and I never think you are crazy! It's a bit astonishing for me to see that you would be able to select C+ seats right after buying Y. In early 2020, I had a flight YOW-DTW-ATL-BOG, and even we were booked in D1, but since the YOW-DTW only have 4 C+ seats but we were still booked in Y for that leg, and we were not upgraded to C+, not right after the booking, nor at the gate. When I click and check the seat map, they would want $50 for the C+ seat and we didn't take it.

I can only say from my personal experience, that I have never been able to select a C+ seat when booking in Y, at least pre-covid, as I haven't crossed the border at all during COVID.

bcm17

I thought about it when I posted it, but didn't think that info was that sensitive. Anyhow, I've deleted all the gyazo pics now, and thank you for the suggestion.

Yes, I was always picking C+ seats even for a bit before covid. I thought the system just recognised us the same for whatever reason. Since I found some from May 2019 I guess maybe they just started experimenting with it around then or just before then? And then kept it until this year? I don't see how it would've been a 'covid thing' anyways as it wouldn't make much sense. Plat+ travelers are probably the more likely ones to be traveling in general during covid and there was less C+ seats during covid because Delta had no middle seats forever, so giving them out to extra people when there's less of them doesn't really make much sense lol.

But yeah, guess it's over now. Oh well.

JournoFlyer

Late to the party here but I found myself in a similar situation last week. I booked two one-way itineraries with Delta for later this month and got the same: an offer to upgrade to C+ or First Class but unable to select a C+ seat free of charge despite it being a Flying Blue Platinum perk.

I managed to get in touch with a Delta rep via iMessage who explained that "Air France and Delta just had issues and a lot of changes coming", but that he would be able to manually override those seat selections.

A few minutes later I got two emails with an updated reservation for both of my itineraries, with C+ seats on all flights.

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you!

TonyHe

I have been told today that, since Aug 31st your flight must be coded DL to benefit from upgrades to C+

kauppias

So I suppose one has to hope that dl schedule changes then changing to DL codes and one can then retro claim the original AF codes 😄😄😄

TonyHe

that’s what happened to me on the return flight!