LuvAv8n

Same experience on my last international flight. Saw J8, so figured Z would eventually open up. Got my EF notification, looked at my reservation on line, and no upgrade. Called DM desk, and got the same story. "I see you are waitlisted. Should have auto cleared. Sorry. Blah blah blah."

This is one of the many reasons I have EF, because I don't trust Delta's automated system to get things right, especially when I am rolling the bones on a Z = 0 flight. (Yes, I know, there are those of you who will say to only pay M when Z is greater than 0, but business trips are not always so flexible.)

Av8n

Sabai

Slippery Jeff Robertson and the entire SkyPesos team thank you for your patronage; it is their brilliant marketing efforts that drives this behavior.

Please keep it Up

craig44485

^+1. Never wait for DL to process it. One time I got the EF alert, called DL, and agent said it would process when it rolled over within the next few hours, pressed her on how long and she said 2 to 3 hours. Checked back in 3 hours and still nothing. Called again and was told not all 3 segments had opened up Z and all 3 needed to do so before the SWU could be processed. (MNL>NRT, NRT>JFK, JFK>PIT) This did not seem right, so I tweeted @DeltaAssist and the person there was able to book me on 2 of the 3 legs, while being on stand-by for the last leg. The main leg I wanted was NRT>JFK which was the one that opened up first, I could live with sitting in the back MNL>NRT or JFK>PIT if it came down to it. It all worked out fine in the end, though for some reason I got the upgrade from my status JFK>PIT and not the SWU, not sure why??

MNAudiS4

I just had one of my best SWU experiences yet. I had 1 left that expires in less than a wwek.

I SDC onto a redeye out of SFO, i was #1 on the list for 2 spots as a Diamond at 2 hrs on a M fare. At checkin at 75 minutes i went to 3 with only 1 seat left. So i called the Diamond line had them reference the SWU on was told to have the airport activate it. After about 10 minutes a 4th agent came over and knew how to properly activate it. Taking me off the Up3D list waitlisting the SWU and boom it went to a UP2A priority and moved to #1 on the list. I did get the last spot.

I thought 3 hours was the cutoff for SWU. But that might be for Diamond line, @Deltassit to be able to activate it. under 3 hours the airport has to activate it.

LoganFlyer

Because DL opened V but not G on your flight. I've had that happen too.

LuvAv8n

+1 Normally, before the window opens, V=G. However, once the window opens, it seems G generally goes to 0. Hence, status will generally get you a seat, not the G portion.

HongKonger

Never wait for the automated system. When you get your notification, call immediately. Otherwise you are playing with fire.

MSPeconomist

Up until the gate, SWU/miles and free upgrades book into different upgrade inventory classes. I'm guessing that the JFK-PIT cleared between T-6 days and T- 3 hours.

Xeno

This is one of the main reasons we have EF alerts and know now to trust DL to manage this for us.

sushi lover

Here you go....the first few upgrade priorities as copied from TravelNet.

6 UP1 RS CUSTOMERS WHO PAID FOR A HIGHER FIRST OR BUSINESS CLASS FARE BUT ARE NOT CONFIRMED IN THE FORWARD CABIN AND DESIRING AN UPGRADE

7 UP2A RS DL RESERVE DM / DM PASSENGER BOOKED IN Y/B/M/H/Q/K AND DESIRINGTO USE A SYSTEMWIDE UPGRADE TO FIRST OR BUSINESS CABIN.

8 UP2B RS DL RESERVE PM / PM PASSENGER BOOKED IN Y/B/M/H/Q/K AND DESIRINGTO USE A SYSTEMWIDE UPGRADE TO FIRST OR BUSINESS CABIN.

9 UP2 RS AF AND KL ELITES AND DL MEDALLIONSON Y FARES DESIRING COMP MEDALLIONUPGRADE TO FIRST/BUSINESS CLASS

10 UP3D RS DL RESERVE DM / DM PASSENGER IN B/M/H/Q/K/L/U/T/E CONFIRMED IN COACH AND DESIRING COMPLIMENTARY UPGRADE TO FIRST OR BUSINESS CABIN INCLUDING YCA FARES

This week I had an agent tell me that SWU usage does not change my priority and i would not be getting the last seat due to the fact that a DM was taking it. I later checked Travelnet and found that I had not been coded properly and the DM had not used a SWU. The agent was wrong and I wrote a letter to DL. They gave me 5500 miles. I will write them everytime they screw this up until it is fixed.

HongKonger

You should indeed do that, but you should also have called your elite line or tweeted to have your SWU coded properly. You should ALSO complain about the poorly trained GA.

Xeno

This is very helpful. Thanks.

MSPeconomist

I think the problem might in addition go deeper than DL agents not knowing how to properly apply SWUs. Specifically, I suspect that around day-of-departure or during OLCI something can happen which causes a properly coded SWU to revert to having something wrong.

I had a case where the SWU did seem to be done right: another segment was upgraded at ticketing and the ticket was reissued with no obvious problem, plus the upgrade waitlist showed correctly as the first line on my itinerary. Nevertheless, if I hadn't noticed being slightly lower than I had anticipated on the gate standby upgrade list and hadn't insisted on this being corrected, I would have been UP3D rather than UP2A.

Since AFAIK no human touched the reservation and there was no schedule change on my itinerary, I think there might be a systems error somewhere that causes this phenomenon.

goodandclassy

Haha, indeed. In this case though, I am leaning toward the good ol' 'fool me once; fool me twice' I don't see a need to pay up and ride in the back when a T fare will do


My guess is the coding may not have been done right and you had the comp upgrade request activated (and trumping) the SWU upgrade request...

Bouncing around multiple agents and lines of communication is not something i'd define as a 'best experience'. Seems pretty BAU for us Delta flyers though. I am glad it worked out! That's always a sweet feeling, especially when a last seat is involved

Thanks for this! Do people at the airport have access to travelnet? How could I refer them to said list when needed?

Also, good approach on complaining until they get it right. Squeaky wheel, etc...

sushi lover

I called the Medallion line initially to put the SWU coupon into use. According to a gate agent they cannot do it at the airport. My complaint to DL included the fact that in two attempts to use an SWU in my short time as PM, I have run into 3 agents that did not know the benefits of the SWU or how to use them. I do not know how to "tweet", or have any desire to learn.

The SWUs are a big benefit to me. I always buy my tix less than 24 hours out, so almost always the upgrades are all given out and there are only 2 or 3 seats left. I will use an SWU on longer flights to put me over any DMs on the list. I will not accept DL not knowing what they are doing with these things.