Luck or Status?
 

I was booked BOS-AMS-CDG yesterday in M as I refuse/can't aford to pay 2800 for an upgradeable fare. I was able to get 10B so it wouldn't be too bad. When I arrived to check in at NW/Delta, I was told the flight was overbooked, I had been transfered to Air France which had a direct flight to CDG leaving at the same time. Over to the AF terminal, glad to have a direct flight but worrying about getting a seat in the middle of the 5 across but VOILA, I was already assigned a seat in BUSINESS CLASS. Great but my question is, was this just luck or did my Gold M. status have anything to do with it? If the latter, it makes it even more worthwhile to keep the miles up.

Interested in reactions.

Thanks Joe

M is an upgradeable fare.

But your status probably had more to do with the direct flight and op-up.

I can't speak for AF, but DL seems to prioritize elites for op-ups on TATL flights, IME. The wife and I have received op-ups on maybe 20% of our DL/post-merger NW TATL flights since becoming PM. I doubt that is a coincidence. The rate might very well have been higher except that we have upgraded a fair chunk of flights using PMUs, as well. As another point of reference, on one recent PMU'd flight that was oversold in Y, the person sitting next to me that had been given the op-up was a GM.

I got op-up'd BCN-JFK when I was an FO last year, but that was on Delta metal. Impressed the OP get it with KL/AF. Guess they're serious about this joint venture thingy.

It could also have been DL paying for the J seat to avoid having to pay out denied boarding comp. Really tough to disentangle who was generous here - AF or DL. In either case, someone was, and I would think that status played into it.