Upgrading
 

Hello Everyone,

Tonight I'm flying the redeye from SFO to JFK. I am Platinum Medallion and am current number 5 on the upgrade waitlist with 5 seats left and 14 hours to departure...so my chances aren't looking good. Although the #3 person on the waitlist has no firstname and is just listed as "DAS"

I have a big meeting tomw morning and flying business class is probably my only chance of sleeping. Can I confirm this one-way upgrade with miles and how long before the flight can I do it? Maybe DAS will drop off;)

Alex

Depending on the class fare you can use miles to upgrade.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_mi...ards/index.jsp

If you have a sLUT fare forget it.

Using an SWU, if you have one and if it is properly loaded in the system and the GAs know what they are doing, will get you to the top of the upgrade list.

Good luck.

If you are on DL2340 out of SFO Expertflyer is showing 0 inventory for upgrades (X or Z)

Of course, that could change, so YMMV and good luck!

Those flights never show X/Z space, and it won't change.

I know, never say never, but the vast, vast majority of the LAX/SFO-JFK flights will not have inventory for upgrades prior to the gate. These flights are unique, since they have BE service.

Thank you for your help.

Looks like I'm now #6 on the list and there are only 3 seats left.

Can I call to have them try to apply miles? Can't find a place to do it online. Or it sounds like this flight (2340) won't accept them. I have gotten upgraded on it before but it's not looking good tonight.

Alex

What fare is your ticket? If it is anything less than K, you couldn't use miles irregardless.

It's K ;)

I called and they said there are no upgrades left even though there are 3 Biz class seats open.

Like I said before, there will almost never be upgrades available until the gate--thus, the agents aren't going to see any available. You might take a look at this thread; there's a lot of discussion about upgrading on this route.

Call and waitlist to use miles. Should be 12,500 miles and ask to be placed on the waitlist.

As a Plat you can waitlist an upgrade into Z using miles or SWU.

Thanks. I don't think I have any SWUs...although maybe I lost them. I have been Platinum for about a year. It sounds like a SWU waitlist is the way to go but I don't think I have any SWUs...

SWUs are plat choice beni which you can select once a year (or any of the other options). You should be able to waitlist with miles as well, but I have only waitliested with SWUs so far.

Just saw that and requested them as my benefit -- but it sounds like they mail them to me.

I guess I call to have them waitlist me for SWU upgrade instead?

No. They're electronic and show up in your account pretty fast. Look on the credits page of your profile.

You're right, they're there, but I can't use them online, it says to call.


Description: UPG - SKYMILES ELITE -SYSTEMWIDE
This Certificate cannot be redeemed online at this time. Please call the Delta Reservation Sales Office for assistance
Redemption Code: [removed by me]
Balance History:
08/21/2011 Certificate issued [removed by me] --

I called the number and they said I can't use it on the flight, so I'm wondering if I'm talking to the wrong person.

I want to:
-Remove myself for the waitlist for the free Platinum upgrade (I'll never get it given my position on the waitlist)
-Go back on the waitlist using the SWU

Is there some terminology I need to use such that they'll be able to implement my request?

Thanks,

Alex

Call again.

;) I did, and this time the guy put my SWU on file for the reservation, but insisted 10x that it will not get me higher on the queue. Sure enough, I'm not any higher on the queue.

I am not sure if he was right or just didn't do it properly. I would assume that Platinum w/ SWU is going to rank higher than Platinum w/ Complimentary, but he said no, the only way to get an upgrade is with the Complimentary.

I'm not sure who to believe!

Alex

I tried to use SWUs recently about 6-8 hours after choosing them. They showed up in my account right after I chose them and I even got the email with the cert numbers, but 6-8 hours later the SMS rep was not able to see the certs, even when I gave her the number.

If the rep insisted that it would not get you any higher in the queue, he likely coded it wrong or (unlikely) everybody ahead of you is using upgrade instruments. He is absolutely 100% wrong that the only way to get an upgrade is the complimentary Medallion upgrades.

That's the weird thing -- I am not higher in the upgrade list, rather I have a new waitlisted flight in Business (Z) class, but i can't see the position of that new waitlisted flight.

Does that suggest he did it wrong or is this actually a better option?

javabytes -- I owe you big time!

They did code it wrong, as UP3. The rep didn't know why, asked her supervisor, who didn't know why, who asked the next supervisor, and now I'm #1 on the waitlist.

The only bad news is that now there's only 1 first class seat left, and before there were 4. I can't imagine Delta sold three $1800 tickets in the last 30 minutes...but hopefully this works.

If you were judging by open seats on the seat map, thats not an accurate representation of the number of seats left. There could be paid pax that never selected a seat. If you looked at bucket availability and it was F4 thats a different story. In that case though there could have been 3 misconnects etc. that were placed into the open seats.

Did OP get upgraded?

ExpertFlyer has your flight at J1/C1/D1 right now with just under 6 hours remaining till the UG list is processed. That means Delta is still willing to offer only 1 seat for sale in F. (And, yes, the seat map shows one unassigned seat. So, the seat map just happens to coordinate with the inventory at the moment.)

Good luck - let us know :-)

j

Didn't check the seat map, this was from the upgrade list (the bucket availability).

Haven't gotten upgraded yet but I'm #1 with 6 hours to go...

I normally don't care this much but I have a big presentation to give a few hours after landing, so would prefer to sleep on the plane if possible! ;)

Thank you everyone for your help, couldn't have gotten this far without FT!

Oh it's very possible they did and that is likely what happened. It's about that time in the day right now where people have stuff pop up last minute where they need to be in NYC tomorrow morning and the only flight left to do it is the redeye.

Given that United's redeye is sold out (in all three cabins), that leaves it between AA, DL and VX for redeyes tonight. Throw in the fact that Delta's redeye is the first to land between the four airlines and it gives them a bit of an advantage.

So, did the OP make it up to BE, or not?

Inquiring minds want to know...

I want to know!

If UP3 is the "wrong" code, any idea what the "right" code is? I tried three different phone agents today with no luck - my SWU did not get me higher up on the upgrade list. It would be great to be able to steer the phone reps in the right direction.

Here's the codes that should happen. I don't know the codes for using miles instead of a SWU. Hopefully an insider can give us those.

UP2A= DM desiring to use SWU to upgrade
UP2B= PM desiring to use SWU to upgrade
UP2= Full Y elite desiring complimentary upgrade
UP3D= DM desiring complimentary upgrade
UP3= PM desiring complimentary upgrade
UP4= GM desiring complimentary upgrade
UP5= FO desiring complimentary upgrade
UP6= Companion/AF/KL/AS elite desiring complimentary upgrade

Oh, and welcome to FT !!!

What is the correct way to discuss with rez agent regarding the upgrade code basis? Any special lingo? I always end up tongue tied when I know they are putting me up for a waitlist but perhaps the upgrade basis isnt right...:confused:

Thanks! I will try to steer them towards UP2B next time and see how it goes!

Ask them to uncheck you in first. I think this may have something to do with it. My basic understanding is that they don't code the number directly (UP2B, UP3, etc.)... they need to apply the SWU properly and the result will be a higher upgrade waitlist priority. If you are still UP3 or lower, something is still wrong.

Lead them down the path. If you are a PM, ask them what your upgrade priority is. If they say UP3, ask them what UP2B indicates. Let them say "PM using an SWU to upgrade". Then ask them why you are UP3 instead of UP2B.