When do Upgrades Clear
 

It is Friday night. I have a flight SEA-MSP Monday afternoon. I am a DM, and I still see 12 of 16 seats open.

Is there a calculation on when upgrades clear -- I know there is a 5 day window, and I would think that if there are 12 of 16 seats open that some DM's would clear, but perhaps there is something I am missing

Any ideas?

You can check advance UG availability by going to DL.com, doing an advanced search for the flight and specifying Y as the fare class. Booking full Y will give you an instant upgrade if there's available UG inventory. If you click on the "upgrade eligibility" by the fare, it will say either upgrade eligible or upgrade available. If it's upgrade available then that means some UGs will clear at the window (really 6 days in advance). If you want to see how many there are, keep increasing how many tickets in the search until it changes from available to eligible.

Quite possibly at the 1 day window otherwise at the gate.

FCM, aka First Class Monetization. You can search for it, plenty of discussion on this topic here. Delta thinks it can sell those seats, and has been holding back much more inventory. You may see some seats filled by upgrades a few days closer to departure.

Very extensively discussed here over the past couple years. Amazing that as a Diamond, you haven’t seen this before.

Lots of possible reasons but bottom line, DL holds back complimentary UG’s. I can count on one hand the number of times/yr I receive an UG at the early window, much more often 1-2 days before the flt. Yes, frustrating to see so many empties up front but this is DL policy.

But yet, NOTHING has changed. You can search back as far as this board goes and see a thread just like this one.

Not sure what you mean by nothing has changed. I think it is different than, say, 5 yrs ago when early window UG’s were quite common. The past 2-3 yrs have shown more threads about not clearing as early, if at all.

Personally didn't see any difference until this past year. Few at the early window, most only 1-2 days before the flt. Nevertheless, they do clear so no panic here but it does add to the angst.

Maybe when DL sends out their Diamond packages this year, they will include a sample bottle of Tums for those who are not enjoying the waiting game. :p