I guess thats because the medallion originally had bought a coach ticket. I agree with you that it is an unintended nuance of the policy that hopefully will be changed at some point. I always SDC anyway, rarely if ever SDS so it would have little effect on me but some day it might. When in doubt SDC!:D

Confirmed premium cabin customers can still same-day change to a flight after Medallions have been upgraded. Unlike window upgrades where Medallion tickets are reissued to confirmed RU, gate upgrades still show confirmed Y with an SB seat assigned in RU. Upgrading at the gate doesn't take any F inventory away since the newly upgraded segments are SB, not HK (confirmed).

The countdown to departure that GAs are given say to start upgrading Medallions and clear standbys at D-35 :confused: but that opens up SDC frustrations.

Edit: I want to be clear that I agree with this OP that Delta should let him standby for an upgrade after having a seat assigned, but following the current rules, no matter how ...... they are, isn't Shena.

Sorry - I see that now. I read it as applying to same-day standby since you posted it that way.

It's still confusing but I'll take your word for it. :p

That's where I'm still confused. I get completely why that is the case for a non-rev - I don't get why that's the case for a revenue standby passenger once they've been cleared, but I guess that's the way it is. I would have honestly thought as a revenue pax, once I was cleared, I was "confirmed".

Does this mean that if someone with a FC ticket or instrument supported upgrade does a SDC to a flight at T-20, for example, the GA is supposed to board and downgrade an elite who had been upgraded at the gate before boarding started?

This contradicts my experience at LAX where the GA and redcoat admitted that a mistake had been made (regarding refusing to let me SDC onto the flight directly into FC) but refused to downgrade someone who had been upgraded at the gate because the upgraded seat assignments had already been posted on the gate monitor and the person might have seen their upgrade. It was clear that the upgraded passengers hadn't yet claimed their FC boarding passes and boarding had not started.

I think it would put an airline in a bad situation to clear revenue standby customers, then have an IROP that fills up the flight. The airline wouldn't want to be required to issue denied boarding compensation to the standby customer who wasn't even confirmed in the first place. Instead, the airline just takes away the standby customer's seat and says "sorry, but you're standing by and these confirmed customers need to be accomodated. Here are 5,000 miles for getting your hopes up. Thanks for your business."

I think it's a mistake to even be allowed to SDC at D-20.

I can't find any guidance on what to do to a gate-upgraded customer when a SDC occurs, so I would handle it on a case-by-case basis. If the upgraded customer never boarded or got his boarding pass, downgrade him. If he already boarded, then probably downgrade onboard, explain that the gate upgrade was processed too early and apologize.

The good thing about SDCs after clearing Medallions is there's no way for them to pick a Medallion's seat, so they'd be on the HK list waiting for an F seat, so there wouldn't be a seat dupe problem onboard.

Again I'm confused in what when I get a confirmed free elite upgrade into RU/OU at my DM window, I've never been aware of the ticket being reissued. DL sends me an email confirming the upgrade (currently around 5:55 pm ATL time T-6 for the upgrade at the DM window that was processed at about 5:05 pm ATL time), but I don't get a new receipt and I'm not notified of a new ticket number.

With PMNW, once or twice I was advised by PE agents to request that the ticket be reissued immediately after my upgrade cleared in advance when I was flying from a weird outstation that was apparently known not to follow NW policy on elite upgrades in order to avoid the possibility of Shena on my travel day.

ADDED: I just logged into delta.dumb and looked at the current receipt for my next trip. Both directions were upgraded at the DM window, last week and yesterday. The receipt doesn't indicate a reissue or some previous ticket number and shows the original purchase date only. For both directions, it still shows L class but has my FC seat assignments in the last column, including the change I made to my seat on the return portion just after the upgrade was confirmed.

Of course, with instrument supported upgrades, the ticket is reissued at some point and, in fact, must be reissued before one can check in.

Just imagine when they add the c+ debacle into the mix with all these same scenarios x2. God bless and godspeed in dealing with that mess at T35 widgets.:D

When I look at Medallion PNR who was cleared at the upgrade window, the e-ticket shows "RU" instead of a Y class, and the itinerary shows "RU" for the HK segment instead of a Y class.

But for a PNR that got a gate upgrade, even after flying, the itinerary will still show Y class for the HK (confirmed) segment, but the seat status is XC. The upgraded RU seat is on the next line, the SB (standby) segment.

A screenshot of DLTerm would really help. It's easier to look at than describe.

Edit: here are examples of what PNRs would look like in different situations, showing how a gate upgrade shows the upgrade as SB, but upgrade at the window is HK.

PNR for Medallion with no upgrade requests:

1 DL 5995V 6:00A 7:00A HK1 CI 19A
2 DL 1255V 8:00A 9:00A HK1 CI 20A

PNR for Medallion who was cleared 5 days before departure:

1 DL 5995RU 6:00A 7:00A HK1 CI 1A
2 DL 1255RU 8:00A 9:00A HK1 CI 2A

PNR for Medallion who was upgraded at gate for both flights:

1 DL 5995RU 6:00A 7:00A SB1 ON STBY 1A
2 DL 5995 V 6:00A 7:00A HK1 XC STBY 19A
3 DL 1255RU 8:00A 9:00A SB1 ON STBY 2A
4 DL 1255 V 8:00A 9:00A HK1 XC STBY 20A

I'm going to have to do everything verrrrrrry slowly and have a heart-to-heart, 5-minute conversation with every customer whose seat I move.

Please read what I added to my post. I just checked my receipt for an upcoming trip that was upgraded at the DM window and the ticket has not been reissued. It still shows class L (sorry, I have a sLUT fare for this trip) but the last column has my FC seat assignments.

BTW, in these cases, I always retrieve the original receipt in my email to use for reimbursement purposes as I don't want someone to erroneously conclude that I purchased a FC fare if it's against the rules to do so.

I'm wrong that I shouldn't use the word "reissue," but the e-ticket on the GA's end will update with RU class in place of a Y class at first glance. The e-ticket history will show the original class.

Not sure if it belongs here but was #3 for 6 seats on DTW-SLC. At T-30 upgrades cleared an I wound up #1 for 0 seats. I as I was standing at counter waiting to board was told I boarded and lost my chance at an upgrade. Was accused of getting of the plane. I was finally upgraded so not complaining too much. Agent said it was a computer glitch.

Shena or not?

Someone accused you of boarding and you didnt. Then didnt want to give you an upgrade. And the hits just keep on coming. Report report and report.

They told you that you boarded - WHILE - you were standing at the podium?!?!? :confused: :confused: :confused: