The "Upgrade Declined" Button
 

This morning when my husband and I checked in for our flight tomorrow from DTW to BOS, I discovered that he (Gold Medallion) had been upgraded and I (Platinum) had not. So I called to inquire, and was told that when I booked I "pushed the upgrade-declined button" with my mouse for MY ticket. Never heard of this, never saw such a button/option, and am sure I would not have selected it. Anyone else encounter this problem or know where the "button" is located on the booking form? BTW, my disclaimer to the agent of any knowledge of this "button" availed me of nothing.

There is no such button/option to select "decline upgrade".
Its yet another Delta IT bug that is causing people to go from an upgrade requested status to declined or not requested. Of course, there is little incentive for them to fix it.

Apparently this is happening fairly often now.

If you book through third-party sites, often times your upgrade does not show up as requested. you have to either pull up your reservation on delta.com and hope that the request upgrade link is active, or call dl reservations to get yourself added to the list...

still doesn't explain why wife was upgraded but you were (esp if on the same booking!), but this is one of the most common ways why the upgrade is not requested.

Welcome to FT!

Just as a test, I went through a bogus booking of an LAX-ATL itinerary up to the point of completing the sale. I was logged in, and reviewed each screen carefully. It started out saying "Upgrade Eligible" and I never encountered any where that would allow me to decline the upgrade, up until the very last purchase screen.

There is a "request upgrade" box on both the basic and advanced booking screens. By default it is checked when you are logged in. If you start your search without being logged in or use a site like Kayak to search this box is likely not checked; essentially declining the upgrade.

Interesting to know.

You can check the status after you book your flight - on the itinerary page it should say UPGRADE REQUESTED

Absolutely correct. I didn't think about that button on the initial screen. Good catch!

And if, after booking, your res. says "upgrade eligible" you have to call & talk to a CSR to have them change it to "upgrade requested".

I had this happen this week, too. There was nothing different in how the reservation was made versus the hundreds of other reservations where the updgrade default worked.

The PM Line told me they would add my to the UG list, but I didn't show on the list after the call. The DL app instructed that I needed to talk to an agent. When I got to the airport (LAS-ATL, 3:05 pm flight on Tue) my name was added to the UG list, but I wound up falling short for the battlefield UG. Not a big deal, I made it home and had a aisle exit row seat, but I do wonder if I would have cleared five days out had I been on the list from the start.

I think in this case, it's that the husband was upgraded, the wife wasn't.

And the wife was Plat and the Husband Gold.

Unlikely they went through different ticketing routes -- one on Delta.com direct, and the other via Kayak? -- to buy two tickets together on identical routes.

They must have had separate PNRs. If a PM 'declines' the upgrade, why would they still upgrade the GM, unless they had separate PNRs? Wouldn't the GM getting upgraded trigger the PM getting the same-party upgrade, also?

I bought both tickets, one after the other, on Delta's website but with separate credit cards. Thanks to the information provided in this thread, I now note that my confirmation states, "upgrade eligible," while my husband's states, "upgrade requested." To my way of thinking, "upgrade eligible" does NOT mean "upgrade declined." The agent's characterization of the two as equivalent goes a little too far. But it is a good lesson -- to Delta, "upgrade eligible" is apparently meaningless, even for its Platinum elites, unless a second call is made.

This is exactly the point. "Upgrade Eligible" means "Upgrade Declined". If you EVER see "Upgrade Eligible" on your reservation, CALL immediately and get it fixed. There have been reports here on FT saying that this has been noticed to happen weeks after booking but before the flight. DL has no idea why this is happening, as far as has been posted here on FT.

Exactly. Upgrade Eligible means that the passenger is eligible for the upgrade but that it has not yet been requested. Upgrade Requested means that the upgrade request has been processed and the passenger is in the upgrade queue.