fliesdelta

Mostly because I got upgraded to BE on ATL-SFO. mid day, on a T fare, as a lowly GM.

Not bad.

InsUW2

Congrats on the upgrade I got 2 yesterday for Sat flights, 1 a "U" and the other a "T" fare. Still waiting for the Middle leg and a possible upgrade there.

RFDMinnesota

Odd, I was #6 or #7 on a MSP-ORD flight yesterday.

CJKatl

For those who have never flown at night on the 4th, it's pretty awesome. When the night is clear and you are flying over all the fireworks displays.

ross123

I have always enjoyed traveling on holidays and events for that reason. For years I would go to the Super-really-big-football-game and then leave during the game out of LAS which was a ghost town. In recent years its been getting much busier but its still much easier than normal times (with DL having a priority lane and TSA having pre-check its not too bad even during busy times).

BusTrav8yrs

I wouldn't go booking next years flight just yet. You hit kind of a perfect storm. A holiday that landed on a heavy business travel day, most stayed home rather than fly a short week. Next year it's a Friday so I am probably going to travel home on the 3rd if on the road.

NittanyLion

+1 to this. Definitely very cool.

And if it's NOT clear on the night of the 4th --- given that it's the peak of summer --- there's a decent shot you can see fireworks of a different sort (lightning).

Lightning storms in the distance at 35K feet are always cool (as long as we're not heading too close!)

jrl767

watching the Washington DC fireworks on TV last night (we were NOT about to fight the traffic for a 32-mile trip) we saw the lights of a couple jets landing downriver at DCA

I recall flying SEA-LAX the evening of 3Jul (30-some yrs ago) and seeing a number of fireworks shows below, mostly thru the San Joaquin Valley ... very cool to look down on them from 35000 ft

chrisj85

I was pleasantly surprised to get upgraded for SAN-ATL July 3-4 redeye (X fare) as a GM. Usually I'm something like #20 of 38 for those West Coast to ATL flights.

18sas

Yes, holiday travel is often a good chance to score an upgrade. Once I traveled ATL-SFO on Good Friday. There were 8 people on the upgrade list for 8 seats available. Everyone got upgraded! I had already cleared at the window.

Another +1 on traveling the eve of Jul 4. I did that a couple of years ago flying DCA-ATL. There was a some cloud cover in places but you could still get a decent view of some of the displays.

Uh Clem

My favorite day to travel is the first day of a new century. On 1/1/2000, I flew from AMS to LAX on a 747 that had around 30 passengers. Everyone was afraid planes would be falling out of the sky on Y2k. Looking forward to 1/1/2100.

levman

June 26th is my new favorite ... only because my family was given an operational upgrade (3 seats!) to First on the 5+ hour flight from LAX-KOA, what a great way to start our vacation! My son claims that the skin-on, roast chicken breast with polenta (and two desserts - his and mom's) was among the best meals he had on vacation

I'm not expecting a repeat performance anytime soon - this was my first operational upgrade after many years of being a Platinum with my fair share of international trips under my belt.

BusTrav8yrs

Congrats on the UG. I wouldn't call LAX to Hawaii a "score" though. It is the worst FC experience on DL given the length of the flight and what you get. And those crappy 752's.

I don't understand with how bad the product is that they don't do comp UG's on those flights.

levman

It's all relative. Compared to bring cramped in Economy "Comfort", I sure appreciated the wider seat and extra leg room after the long day of travel from Ohio to LAX in coach (not to mention, starting the Hawaii flight with a Mai Tai); my 10 year old got an experience he'll remember for a long time; and my wife thinks I'm (even more) awesome. Not too shabby...

What was BAD was the return flight, which was on a plane with no air gaspers... I've been flying a LONG time and I don't recall ever being on a plane without them before! Made the flight home very uncomfortable.

I fully agree on the lack of comp upgrades, doesn't make sense. The flight home had empty FC seats, and they wouldn't even let me purchase a gate upgrade since I was traveling on an award ticket (another silly rule, IMHO).

On the other hand, I likely would not have gotten the operational upgrade if Delta offered complementary upgrades between Hawaii and the continental US, since we were on FF tix. Regardless, I still think that Delta should include Hawaii in their complementary upgrade program. As if they will listen to me