DL has always valued non-revs over paid upgrades on international flights. Non-revs busses are always fun to fly on in the off-season.

For a few years pre-pandemic, I had consistent very good luck going to the service desk at the KLM Crowne Lounge in Amsterdam, inquiring about upgrades from Main Cabin to D1 on the AMS-SEA flight, and being offered the upgrade from main cabin to D1 at the amazingly low price of 25,000 SkyMiles. An absolute steal. This was typically about 2-3 hours before flight time. Granted, most of these occasions were either during the winter holidays or during the late summer business travel doldrums. But, still, it struck me as such a great offer that it had to have been a mistake. The only downside is that the boarding pass for the upgraded seat would inevitably print the dreaded "SSSS", subjecting me to a comprehensive Dutch pat-down at the boarding gate.

Two weeks ago, however, the KLM Lounge service desk woman told me that now, the only upgrades they process in the lounge for Delta flights are GUCs.

While it might be too much to ask that upgrades to D1 would be consistently offered for the crazy low price of 25,000 SkyMiles, I am surprised that KLM ground agents in AMS have apparently gone entirely out of the business of offering buy-ups to D1.

I have a new winner, ATL-PBI for $859

On my upcoming CLE-BOS-LHR-JFK-CLE trip, Delta is asking $574.82 per person for an upgrade from C+ to F. On the return, Delta wants $452.41 pp for an upgrade from C+ tp F. Unless we get UG'd, I guess I'll be buying my PDB at the Hudson News Euro Cafe (a bottle of Coke Zero for $3.50).

That,s a great deal, how did they word that as an offer?

OP is talking about the domestic segments, so they are pretty lousy deals. If you read OP itin in PS thread, OP is booked in PS/PE on long-haul segments.

Partially mentioned in MUA thread, but putting here as well for completeness.

O/W ticket RDU-DTW-HND (close in, cheaper than buying R/T).

RDU-DTW, W fare. $579 to F, for last 2 seats. Hard pass.

DTW-HND, G fare. $1259/125.9k to D1. No EF currently but seat map was incredibly empty, 20+ unassigned. Started considering, but remembered MUA and went that way instead (45k).

I fly a lot DCA-JFK either on paid F or get upgraded. I have a leisure trip in Economy that I booked a few days ago, but now the fare is twice as much if I want to change to an earlier flight.

FCM is being offered at $52 or 4,900 miles. If I take the offer, will I be able to SDC to an earlier flight if there are open seats in F?

MSP-CUN in early Jan. Only 4 seats left in F on a 739 and C+ almost full. Took the $225 (x2) offer for F. Upfaring was +$900 each; we paid $432 RT for our Y tickets several months ago.

Return is also $225 on an A321; 8 F seats open and almost empty C+, so I'll roll the dice on that one, as at minimum I'd guess we should have a row of C+ to ourselves (lots of preferred seats open as well).

~3 weeks after the question, but yes — once you have a ticket that has been (re)issued in any F inventory, regardless of the method you used to buy up from Y, you can SDC under “any available seat” rules

I don't usually fly DL. I just saw an upgrade offer from Y to Delta One DTW-FRA for 821 euros. It has been pricing at ~4325 euros. My work paid for the Y ticket, so I figured the upgrade would be worth it at 821. I entered my credit card info in the app, and when I pressed Pay the app crashed. Now it's showing the old price of 4325. Has anyone else ever seen prices disappear like this?

MSP-AMS upgrade to D1
 

I'm flying to Glasgow next week and tempted by Delta's offer to upgrade the MSP-AMS leg PS to D1 for $626 each. It's a 8.5-hour flight on A330-200, D1 is half full, PS almost empty, C+ and most of main full. I don't have status but this upgrade might push me over for MQD.

I can't compare this to a cash fare because of complicated routing (fare class W and A) but the overall price makes it potentially worth it. Also understand it's nonrefundable, what happens if flights are changed by airline due to weather or aircraft?

Thanks, Meg

Fare diff would almost certainly be greater. Fare diff from PS to D1 is nominally in the $1500 range each-way for MSP-GLA fares. Although you can't just upgrade one-leg when refaring. It's closer to $1100 fare diff in the summer due to cheaper seasonal PS fares in the winter (the cheapest Z fares on route are not seasonal and are applicable year-round).

If you are flying out of CLT/RDU, fare diff is not as great, but still looks to generally be over $1000 each-way. Note that domestic segments book into W class on PS fares because they don't have PS cabins (the W class books you into C+ cabin). Having different booking classes doesn't necessarily mean you are booked on different fares. You are most likely booked on a single 'A' fare component all the way through from CLT/RDU-GLA if that is your starting point (an upfare would upgrade all segments including domestic segments to FC cabin). Fare component breakdown is in "Fare Details:" line of email receipts.

I would've jumped at MSP-AMS from PS->D1 for $626, unless you had an already really expensive P fare for some reason.

If there is a flight disruption they will either keep you in D1 or refund the money if they can't (such as replacement flights are full in D1), and also should provide additional downgrade compensation in that case.

This is helpful, thanks! Total routing is RDU-MSP-AMS-GLA on Delta/KLM (first flight is W for C+ and they want an extortionate $580 for the RDU-MSP upgrade), returning MAN-JFK-RDU on VA premium and DL (can't seem to bid for an upgrade on that but I'm good with VA PE). There were limited routings because AA seems to have suspended RDU-LHR flights for the end of December (we depart 12/28, return 1/5) and DL/KLM has already made a couple of flight/aircraft changes since I originally booked.