bworrell

9 on the list for tonight's flight with 5 seats left. I think DMs have a pretty good chance though.. I'm a DM on a V fare and am #2.

Update:
Sorry, my flight tonight is a very old 757. No personal TVs, no power outlets, no USB outlets, and regular tiny pillows and red blankets.

This service is really inconsistent and doesn't stack up to competitors.

mridley2

How do the upgrade lists look for LAX-JFK on a Saturday night red eye?

As of this evening, only 3 seats remain in BE but the earlier flight (9:30p) has more availability. Hopefully I can SDC to that. I'm PM on a V fare... MR MoRe fun. yay!

MSPeconomist

So did you get the upgrade or were those UPs on the screen shenanigans?

PV_Premier

my interpretation is that the OP was successfully upgraded and despite the differential between # seats available versus upgrade list size, the BE cabin went out full which probably is a result of either some sort of "Shena" that wasnt, or non-revs.

jrl767

welcome to the world of pseudo-BE

lots of complaining about this in the "Waffling" and "JFK-SEA BE" threads

bgriff

Or could have just been international-style op-ups due to an oversold coach cabin. I've been on a few oversold flights on the SFO route recently so there's no doubt that even if the current upgrade policy goes away, there would continue to be occasional op-ups on these routes.


An update on my experience having flown 3 JFK-SFO roundtrips in recent weeks:

All three SFO->JFK flights were successfully upgraded without me having to do anything -- in all three cases I was added to the upgrade list sometime around 2-3 hours before departure (but never 6, as had been previously reported) and all upgrades cleared successfully as a DM on a range of fares in the Q to H neighborhood.

Only one of the three JFK->SFO flights cleared, in part because I happened to be flying that route at busier times of week than the return flights. Even that one time I did clear, though, I had to call and luckily found a DM agent who knew how to add me to the list a few hours before departure without hassle.

What's strange is that I seem to be on a blacklist for the ex-JFK flights, or something. That one when I did clear, there were already 8 or 9 people on the upgrade list when I called, and I ended up appearing above most of them once I was added to the list.

The most recent ex-JFK flight was the strangest of all. It was a Monday 7am flight, so no surprise that it would be a busy BE cabin and a competitive upgrade list. I never appeared on the upgrade list and did not bother to make a fuss as there were no BE seats showing available a few hours before departure, and I showed up to the gate as the plane was already boarding so didn't want to annoy the gate agent. (As it turns out, perhaps I should have tried to get onto the list, as there were a few no-shows followed by a few battlefield upgrades.)

BUT -- the weird thing -- there were 19 people on the upgrade list, all of whom had appeared sometime between 11pm the night before and departure. Even on an elite-heavy route, I can't imagine 19 people called and got themselves manually added to the list (or even knew to do that) at some point between 11pm and 6am, nor can I imagine that 19 people were using GUCs or old SWUs. Based on the number of people who boarded during Sky Priority boarding, there were still plenty of non-elites on the flight as well, so I would guess 19 people made up a large share of the PMs and DMs on the flight. So why did those 19 people apparently get added to the upgrade list automatically when I did not? Very strange.

NOLAnwGOLD

My LAX-JFK flights went well and upgraded. The first time I called and they added me to the standby flight the night before. By the morning for a noon flight, I was on the upgrade list and #3 of 4 with 4 seats left (the lamb chops were perf4ectly medium rare and uber tasty!). On the way back, I called but they said that I would be automatically added to the upgrade list at 6 hours prior. When I woke up at 830 for a noon flight, I had been. #3 of 4 with 3 seats.

pnq91

Got upgraded, cleared about an hour before.

AEHawk52

I'm flying JFK to SFO on a Friday afternoon in December. I'm a DM on a V fare and used a GUC and was wait listed. It currently looks like there are 13 seats in BE with less than 40 days to departure. Anybody have experience or knowledge on whether my chances for an upgrade are good?

DL2SXM

Impossible to tell. Just start looking at Friday afternoon flights to sfo

aerostl

What's the UG% like for SFO-JFK on Monday mornings, and on the Thursday evening JFK-SFO? I'm a DM, probably on LUT fares. JFK will be a connecting airport - I continue on to a minor/non-hub airport.

Trying to decide if doing the layover in DTW will be worth the potentially higher UG% in exchange for fewer IRROP/alternate airport options, especially during the winter.

bgriff

The reverse direction flights at those times are very hard upgrades as those flights are often sold out with paid tickets, or nearly so, and heavy with elites so likely only DMs with high fare tickets would even have a chance. You may have a slightly better chance since you would mostly be competing with SFO-based traffic, which would likely have a lower share of DL elites. However, for the Monday morning flight especially there is still a good chance the cabins will be sold out.

I would guess DTW would give a higher upgrade %, but I'm sure Monday morning SFO-DTW is still a very competitive upgrade (and perhaps a higher share of DL elites onboard than SFO-JFK), and a less nice seat and soft product than SFO-JFK. Of course, SFO-DTW also has the advantage of being a legitimate automatic upgrade, whereas SFO-JFK you may have to jump through hoops, as documented in this thread, to even have a shot at an upgrade.

bgriff

Your chances should be good since I doubt many people are bothering to use GUCs on these routes, but there is a lot of paid business class traffic on this route so it's always possible the flight sells out up front.

Most likely if you get upgraded it will be at the gate -- do pay close attention to the upgrade list, especially about 1-2 hours before departure. Given the informal processes by which free upgrades are being given out on this route, plus all of the challenges people have had with mis-coded GUCs and RUCs in general, there is definitely a chance that the upgrade list could get ordered incorrectly. I would say if you're any lower than top 3 or so on the upgrade list it would be worth calling the DM desk to make sure everything is coded correctly -- but wait until shortly before departure to check, since people on the free upgrade list only get added a few hours before departure, not when they check in as with normal domestic upgrades.

mnredfox

Finally starting to see the new 752's with flat beds on the SFO-JFK route. ^ Starting this month.

AEHawk52

Thanks. I'm feeling a little less confident considering there are only 10 BE seats remaining since I originally posted. Hopefully I'll get upgraded but we shall see.