stiltwalker

My sister and I are flying together (separate reservations) from ATL-FLL on a redeye on a Wednesday nite in a few weeks. She just joined skymiles, booked on T, I have silver medallion status booked on K. What are the chances of us being upgraded together or will this be some odd situation where it will disqualify my upgrade eligibility? Thx.

Oakshadow

If your sister is on a separate reservation and she is not a silver or higher, she will not get upgraded. (UPDATE: I am WRONG about that. See below. Happy to admit an error. ) You might. ATL-FLL isn't bad for UGs. Don't know if the late-evening departure is any better than other times.

If you get upgraded at the window, you can call the premium line and ask to get downgraded and ensure you're sitting next to your sister in Y. You can try this at the airport too. If it's a last minute gate upgrade, chances are you can just walk back to Y and the seat next to your sister will be available. (Give your F seat to a soldier or something.)

Another option if you get upgraded is giving your F seat to your sister. It's a rather short flight so it's not terrible in Y and you'll earn a brownie point.

rylan

Not sure why you say that she won't get upgraded.
Any medallion can request a companion upgrade for someone on the same flight. You will have to call DL to request it. They just need your record locator and her name to put her on the upgrade list.
Note that since you are on separate reservations, you will clear at your normal silver window and your sister will clear with companions. You will have a higher ranking than she does... so its possible you may clear for upgrade and she won't.

Oakshadow

Honestly, I've never heard of a non-medallion getting a companion UG with someone on a totally different reservation. If that were the case, I'd get the name of the prettiest lady in the waiting area and ask that she be put on my companion UG list. That quote is referring to companions booked with the medallion on the same reservation.

UPDATE: Yep, rylan is correct. You can request an UG to a companion on a separate reservation. According to DL:
(Won't really UG strangers. )

stiltwalker

Love it!


Thanks, I will call the agent and at least add her, see what happens. The other option is to simply give her my seat which I hadn't even thought of. I'm just assuming there won't be a long UG list or a full flight.

GW McLintock

What kind of plane is it? If you call the medallion line and request that your PNRs get linked then she may get lucky if you're not on something like an A320. I don't think you'll have a problem getting it; I've been very lucky on late-night flights on K fares.

-J.

stiltwalker

Boeing 757.

xliioper

Um, I wouldn't really call this a "red-eye" flight (not really even close to the definition). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-eye_flight

stiltwalker

There's a red eyeball on the booking page. It arrives at midnite. Either way, hopefully there aren't a lot of folks on the UG list.

rylan

Also note that by 'linking' you can also ask for a preferred seat that would otherwise not be available to her, such as exit row.

xliioper

DL just puts the red eyeball on anything that arrives after 12:00AM (no matter how short the flight).

GW McLintock

I've been on sub-1 hour Chautauqua flights that landed at 11:58pm and those had the redeye icon. Of course, if you're on an ERJ, red eyes are the least of your worries

-J.

koreanair720

Given it's an ERJ flight I suspected the red-eye is supposed to represent tears...

Ooompa Loompa

I've upgraded a non-medallion companion on a different PNR. It was no problem at all, and we both cleared at the window.

koreanair720

Same. My GF was on a different reservation and I was able to call and put her on the list with me. Super easy, took under five minutes.