Upgrading at the gate
 

Sorry if dumb question but does Delta ever sell last-minute upgrades at the gate?

I fly on AC and see LMUs all the time where people pay to upgrade right at the gate. Almost 9/10 times it's overpriced and no one buys it but I have seen some decent offers sometimes.

I know DL offers upgrades at check in but what about at the gate?

Or would they rather upgrade 9 people and make no revenue (which is what happened on my ATL-SFO flight 2 days ago)?

They sell them if no more elites are in line for the UG.

Was on a DL codeshare/KLM metal int'l flight last week. A FA onboard our 777 went to EC customers with an iPad and started selling upgrades before takeoff. It was actually kind of aggressive. We thought no one would buy because it was around 500 Euros, but one man did. The FA then went into coach trying to sell an upgrade to the now-vacated aisle EC seat! And she found a buyer! Incredible. Never seen that before.

She didn't ask everyone; perhaps just Flying Blue members. It was interesting to watch...

I've seen them selling upgrades when all Medallions have cleared. They started with the high fare classes, then offered to everybody when they still had seats left.

I have never seen this done starting at the top and descending by fare class, but it is common for them to require a minimum fare class to be eligible (sorry, I don't recall what that fare class was... it's been a long time since I have seen this done).

I believe K is the minimum fare class for this.

They do this for like 2 years now. Instructions are to first approach their Flying Blue Platinum pax. Then the other pax.... first the Flying Blue Gold and Silver pax (also for miles....most of the times they start with pax with enough miles in their account as they can see that on their ipad as well) then the other pax. Regarding the Delta frequent flyer programm ‘Skymiles’ their instructions read;

Het level van de Delta Skymiles passagiers is niet zichtbaar op de PIL. Benader deze passagiers dan ook niet actief voor een upgrade naar Economy Comfort. Echter, als een passagier met zijn of haar
lidmaatschapskaart aan kan tonen dat hij/zij de status Platinum of Diamond heeft, mag je deze passagier gratis ‘upgraden’ naar Economy Comfort. Gold-, Silver en Member passagiers moeten wel betalen voor een upgrade naar Economy Comfort.

KL crew will receives commission. Fully expect this to come to DAL also in the upcomming years.

Thanks, that sounds right.

They didn't do it class by class, but required some minimum fare class, then (when that didn't sell enough) lowered the requirement in 2 or 3 steps to "anybody else in coach".

I thought the K fare requirement was a standard.

Perhaps they are, as in "We have our standards, but they are economically flexible." ;)

At one time, the DL gate software just wouldn't process a gate upgrade unless pax had a K fare or higher. Not sure if that has changed recently.