Okay, thanks for enabling! ;) I think it's justifiable for an overnight flight of more than 8 hours and will be a good holiday surprise for my travel companion who's never flown F. Will hope this week's flight disruptions don't carry over to next Wednesday.

Online upgrade offers are only available on flights that are both DL coded and DL operated. Note that Virgin Atlantic is VS (not VA, which is Virgin Australia) and you won't see any offers online for that flight since it is not DL operated. You might be able to upgrade at airport with VS directly, but you will not be able to do an online upgrade with Delta.

Yup, I meant VS for Virgin Atlantic but "no upgrades available" on their site though there are more empty F seats than PE. Maybe because I booked through Amex?

Can you use an e-credit from a flight towards FCM?

Is there any sort of window when best to keep an eye on DL site or app for possible upgrades?

Flying CVG-CDG in a couple weeks and the flight is *very* light. EF is showing J9 C9 D9 I9 Z9 P9 A9 G9 W9 S9. I balked at paying an additional ~$600 for PS (both TATL flights) at booking; currently showing $499 for upgrading to PS and a whopping $4,000 for D1 (in the old 767-300 no less)...

I would strongly recommend calling in and asking specifically for a "Mileage Upgrade Award", which should only cost 45k miles for Delta One if space is available.

Poster has a coach fare (note that they balked at buying up to a PS fare at booking). Mileage upgrade awards are only available from coach if you have or K or higher fare (HQK fares are 65K miles and YBM are 35K to EU). PS fares (P/A/G) are 40K miles to EU.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...de-awards.html

Yep. And personally, the extra $600 for a fare to MUA from [G] PLUS the 40,000mi to fly the 9hr TATL on the old 767-300 didn't seem worth it. Maybe if I had 900,000 miles in my account but I don't.

But I am crossing my fingers for a relatively cheap offer to upgrade to PS at least on the outbound.

Upgrade offer
 

I’ve booked a flight on Delta, JFK - MSY in May, first time flying on Delta. I’ve downloaded the app and there’s an offer to upgrade cabin class. Do these offers go up and down in value or is it just a standard price which doesn’t vary?
Thanks in anticipation 😁

They absolutely do vary. If you see a price you like, just take it. It’s important to note though that if you end up changing your flight, it will not apply to your new flight and is non-refundable.

Yes, they vary. For awhile a few years ago, they would sometimes even be cheap--I was #1 on the upgrade list from San Antonio to Detroit a few years ago and never cleared because the last available first class seat disappeared a couple hours before the flight. As I was boarding, a guy next to me said, "Hey, I just checked in and it offered me a $39 first class upgrade so I took it!" Lol...I never got that offer. Glad Delta made their $39!

(Nowadays, I find the offers to be not that great. Case in point, a 90min flight I have today asked for $575 for the upgrade.)

Also, carefully read the upgrade offer. Oftentimes, at least for me, they offer first class upgrade for only one leg of your journey and usually, the shortest leg.

Yes, often not that great and often more than simply upfaring by paying fare difference (via Change Flights) to First (as below). Upfares retain the value of original fare + upfare price while seat upgrades only retain value of original fare price unless you go through an agent and convince them to refund upgrade fee.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bc07701c81.png


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...df7dd23a19.png

Thanks for that - we have booked economy one way from JFK to MSY with Virgin points and the upgrade offer to first is $330 each for two of us - don’t know how that is value wise

Just eyeballing that flight, $330 is the standard fare difference between Basic Economy and First Class. So you're fine there. For a roughly 3.5 hour flight with meal service, I don't think it's a bad deal.