socal23

JFK-SEA, 15 Apr. 1845 departure. 1745 - 8 remaining BE unoccupied per iPad app. By boarding at 1813, 4 non revs with blue CREW tags on the rollons cleared at gate; inventory in app disappeared. Not lay flat seats. 16 total seats.

Exclusive experience for sure.

I was offered upgrade for mileage over phone; I declined. I didn't ask at gate regarding availability. Changed to non stop flight today from indirect route that was to fly out tomorrow. All segments tomorrow had Medallion upgrades.

As posted above by another member, my sentiments exactly...

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Not the most active, but fly 200k + miles a year and million miler.

Many frequent fliers go out of their way to stay with one carrier including paying premium prices even if competitive prices are available on different carriers as well as many times purchasing M + fares due to upgrades chances etc. But if the lack of upgrades (in particular certs) are going away I think overall the net profit might be negative over time.

cfischer

was it a BE equipped AC?

PaulInTheSky

I was re-booked into full Y due to IRROPs to one of the LAX-JFK flights(76W). Wouldn't be too surprised by no upgrades, but the fact that the information is shown in .dumb confuses me - "Medallion upgrade requested" even though I did not use miles or SWU for the upgrade. Did anybody have such experience, including really getting added to the upgrade standby list?

FitTraveler

Incredibly exclusive. Delta BusinessEmployee class.

sethb

Did it clear?

RyaninLA

I understand that it is Delta's prerogative to make changes to their program- but to tell us that they have made significant investments in biz class and want to keep it exclusive but on my flight 476 LAX-JFK today 15 seats were available with 13 on upgrade list. I asked the gate agent what the trick is to getting an upgrade - she told me all were delta non revs "who are entitled to business class". Really delta? You don't want to give a diamond with over 250k base miles last year with $35k in spend and with M fare an upgrade? I don't begrudge nonrevs being up front but to tell me you want to keep it exclusive and then allow nonpaying passengers to fill it up really irks me. I steered my biz to you but no longer. I did AA's platinum challenge today. Glad l did.

pstation

When and where did Delta say they were keeping the cabin "exclusive"?

TrojanTraveler

You are far from alone. Of all the changes DL has made, I think this one will really backfire. Since all upgrades were done at the gate, upgraders did not remove any seats for sale. Unless AA matches this, I think this move will cause DL pain.

DL, give the non-revs their Hawaii seats back and let us have the transcon again.

RyaninLA

Medallion Complimentary Upgrades are now available on flights between Hawaii and Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, or Seattle. But in light of significant investments in our coast-to-coast BusinessElite® experience, which include premium amenities like fully flat-bed seats, Westin Heavenly® In-Flight Bedding, on-demand entertainment, and premium dining, we no longer offer Medallion Complimentary Upgrades on flights between New York-JFK and Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle.

RyaninLA

PStation - I went to DAL's website - no exact wording on "exclusive" but the issue is still the same. Biz travelers are the lifeblood of DAL- nonrevs don't create revenue. So if the revenue generating passengers aren't appreciated and thrown a bone occasionally expect them to vote with their wallets.

here's verbatim what is on their site:
Medallion Complimentary Upgrades are now available on flights between Hawaii and Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, or Seattle. But in light of significant investments in our coast-to-coast BusinessElite® experience, which include premium amenities like fully flat-bed seats, Westin Heavenly® In-Flight Bedding, on-demand entertainment, and premium dining, we no longer offer Medallion Complimentary Upgrades on flights between New York-JFK and Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle.

How I translate this is " We don't want anyone who's actually helped us pay for these investments to actually get to enjoy it unless they fork over even more'.

Carl Johnson

Not just that. Show me a flat-bed between JFK and SEA. Also, take a look at 1643 (JFK-SEA) and tell me what configuration you see. I interpret it as "whether we made any actual investment or not, we are going to screw over those who would have helped us pay for these investments if we actually made them."

sethb

"In light of the significant investments we've made in talking about improving out aircraft, . . ."

If DL had said that no medallion upgrades were available on flights that actually had the lie-flats they claim are the reason for loss of upgrades, that would have been a lot more reasonable.

Now I'll bet the "don't call me a Delta-apologist"s will come up with some reason why the upgrades should be denied despite the underlying claimed reason being false.

rylan

If I recall (not totally sure though), the "exclusive" bit came from DL cust service responses to several people who emailed in complaints about the loss of the medallion upgrades on those routes... something about a more exclusive experience blah blah.

GGBFlyer

Taking a flight tomorrow from JFK-LAX. 5 BE seats still available. Waitlisted for UG using SWU. Am #1 at this point ahead of two non-revenue passengers. What is a non-revenue passenger?

DLATL777

Employees.