I booked a ticket DCA-JFK-LAS-SLC-DCA for mid-January. $418.00 RT in U class; $618.00, out in U, back in A. $200 each way is what I would pay for an F upgrade, so I took the $618.00 deal. The FCM upgrade JFK-LAS is $901.87 OW. I might try an RUC on this run; otherwise, I'll be content with C+.

ATL-SDQ on Friday, no upgrades 5-days out, FCM for $432. 3 seats available, so most likely will clear at the gate since I don't see anyone paying that much for a 2.5 hour flight.

$106 one way MIA-LGA from either main cabin or C+.....on 12/28....thoughts? Also DL.com was charging almost $200 more for coach than The DL app. Anyone ever seen that?

I did take that FCM offer, but I was convinced the offer was so low because it was the red-eye over New Years Eve. A dummy booking shows 7/20 FC seats open and 19/29 C+ seats open four days beforehand.

As a FO I'd be all over this as I rarely see upgrades on flights that aren't sub 500 mile Connection flights. You're Gold though so your upgrade chances are obviously better. Still, I'd consider it a $100 investment in a 2.5 hour better flight.

Had a $123 offer for my DEN-ATL red-eye tonight on a 764 a few days ago but choose not to bite on it as there where still 23 seats left after the 5 day UG window and I ended up clearing at the GM window.

And now that we've flown the outbound the offer for LGA>STL has disappeared. Still 7 empties, but they won't let me buy up.

Has anyone received a buy up offer to D1 from a TATL economy award? The D1 award price never dropped to a reasonable rate (stayed at 225k miles for a 9 hour flight), despite there being 27 open seats according to the upgrade list. I've got an exit row anyways so I'll be fine either way, but I would be tempted to spend a few hundred if they gave me an offer to buy up.

Odd difference, I fly ATL-CLT once a month or so, my FC buy up for trip in 17 days is $63, just booked another 31 days out and it was $118. Basically same main cabin price, within $5. Using this is a data point for myself to see if prices drop closer to departure. Last year I had just bought first when I flew, experimenting a bit this year. (Also curious if FO could get upgrade out of fortress AA in CLT).

In a handful of efforts, I've been successful as a FO and GM on CLT-MSP/DTW routes, but not CLT-ATL/SLC. YMMV.

If you roll the dice and risk the seats not being filled up in theory the price should go down...

In theory yes, we'll see. I would have just WFBF from the beginning, but I'm curious for FO works in this limited example. Going to be doing this 9 more times this year, so trying to get an idea about how it works. Plan on getting up to PM by end of year, so will be nice to see differences. Terribly nerdy perhaps, but points and upgrades are starting to become a thing :)

ATL is very elite heavy and my success rate on flights into or out of ATL as a diamond are only about 60 percent (I was number six on the upgrade list as a DM from ATL to CHS recently and at least 10 people in coach boarded with PREM) so I wouldn't plan on getting an upgrade as an FO out of ATL.

I would never pay $63 for that short of a flight. If they don't do a PDM on the flight you'll be lucky to get two drinks in the air, I'd rather spend that money on a nice dinner.

I've never flown ATL/CLT but missed an upgrade last year one direction on a trip to CLT from DTW as a diamond.