Upgrade Priority Question
 

Can somebody please confirm that I am reading this correctly? I did a search on this but there isn't much discussion. Does the below chart mean that a Diamond on an award ticket has a higher priority than a Platinum on a paid ticket?

Priority Medallion Level Clearance Priority
1. All Medallions on Y Class Fares At time of ticketing by Medallion Tier
2. Diamond Medallion 5 calendar days in advance for revenue B, M, H, Q, K, L, U, T class fares2 followed by Award Tickets and Pay with Miles
3. Platinum Medallion 5 calendar days in advance for revenue B, M, H, Q, K, L, U, T class fares2 followed by Award Tickets and Pay with Miles
4. Gold Medallion 3 calendar days in advance for revenue B, M, H,Q, K, L, U, T class fares2 followed by Award Tickets and Pay with Miles
5. Silver Medallion 1 calendar day in advance for B, M, H, Q, K, L, U, T class fares2
6. Companions Within 24 hours of departure for B, M, H, Q, K, L, U,

Stangely enough yes... (and I think it's bizarre and I am a Diamond)

Yes. On award tickets, you clear with your elite tier after all revenue tickets (as long as you are Gold or higher. Silvers don't get award upgrades.). So a Diamond on an award ticket clears before a Platinum on a revenue ticket. The exception is full Y fares, which will clear before any award tickets.

"Pay with Miles" tickets are not eligible for upgrade I believe. That may have changed when award upgrades went into effect, but I'm not sure.

This works great. N is an award ticket:

http://cwsi.net/mupc.aspx

I believe this is very fair.... you have your status and obviously you are going to use miles for award tickets and your elite benefits should not stop when you are using miles for a ticket. I am a platinum and have no problem with a diamond on an award ticket clearing before me.... they have higher status then me and just because they're not paying for that ticket, they deserved to be upgraded before me.

They are eligible along with the award upgrades now. I would assume they are in the same upgrade batch as award?

Correct, however I dont know if there is a priority between award tickets and pay with miles, maybe just whichever was purchased first, assuming same elite status.

As I read it, there is a priority of award tickets over the pay with miles. The benefit is not available for Silver. It's only available for Diamond, Platinum and Gold.

Anybody know if and where elites from other ST carriers fit into this?

There are no upgrades for ST elites. At least not a regular program. They could get an op-up if there are no DL elites available.

Also, I agree that diamonds on awards should clear above plats. Hotel status works the same way. You get your elite benefits, including room upgrades, even on award stays.

This was also my understanding, but I recall reading here on flyertalk a lengthy thread on Flying Blue elites being added to the upgrade list... maybe I am wrong...

(not that it would matter to me, I'm an AZ customer)

Could it be for mileage upgrades? Adding them to domestic comp upgrades would be news to me. And I'd want reciprocal privledges too...though AF short haul upgrades are pretty useless.

I don't recall the thread well enough and can't find it right now.

BTW: there's no complimentary upgrades on any EU airlines, and as you point out short-haul upgrades in Europe aren't really worth the trouble, usually.