jrkmsp

I have a last minute work trip this week with high fares and a somewhat convoluted routing to maximize time on location in advance of an international business trip a couple days later.

So, I decided to burn some SkyBonus points on an upgrade reward. Silly me, I assumed it would either a) come out of the same inventory as medallion upgrades or b) be available if there were an open seat. It seems neither is the case. Does anyone have any experience with how often these actually clear?

Part two of my question is, two different reps gave me two different answers as to whether I could be waitlisted with a SkyBonus certificate. The second rep said I could and went so far as to list me. My reservation now looks as if I have requested a miles or RUC upgrade. Is this correct? It's listed with RP inventory. Does this change the answers to either of the above?

Any help/experience/guidance you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

javabytes

RP is the correct inventory. You should be able to confirm this by looking at your cert, it will show the booking classes.

rylan

Correct, it uses RP inventory for the upgrade and should look like and be treated like an upgrade cert. Since Delta restricts upgrade inventory and your flight is this week, it is likely you will end up going to the airport list for the upgrade... and at that point you'll probably have to call again to make sure it gets transferred/activated on the airport list and so you get higher priority above the comp medallion upgrades.

jrkmsp

Will I need to do this before day of departure? Or can I wait until I check in and see where I land on the list (using online checkin, of course, to do this 12 or so hours before the flight)?

rylan

You have to be checked in before you can do anything with or see the airport upgrade list. Prior to that you can only inquire if your waitlist cleared for the cert if RP inventory became available (which is unlikely within a week)

jrkmsp

Yeah, OK, just wanted to make sure there wasn't a step I needed to take that needed to be done before T-24, or T-12 or T-6 or something. Thanks for the help

rylan

Nope, should be ok assuming you see the segment(s) showing as something like 'upgrade requested'.

bennos

Check the T&C on your certs. When I redeemed my UG certs, they required available RP/OP inventory at time of application of certificate... ie they could NOT be waitlisted.

jrkmsp

The first agent told me that (I actually called back because I saw a change in front-end F inventory (From F to P), which made me wonder if upgrade inventory had become available), but I could never find it written in the certificate's T&Cs. The second agent said she could waitlist me. I was actually hoping someone could speak to that experience.

Oh well. I didn't have a choice on the flights. Just have to see what happens.

rylan

I'm pretty sure the waitlist vs not portion is a manual step and would be based on the agent either allowing it or not... since the cert has a number and redemption code, if that is put into the flight record properly then you can get waitlisted.

jrkmsp

That's what I was hoping for. I'll report back on what happens.

jrkmsp

Just wanted to report that the Medallion agent I spoke to coded things correctly and I'm at the top of an already long and growing upgrade list for tomorrow's flights. So, looks like this will work as I had hoped.

mabramovich

Is the relevant upgrade bucket still RP? The Skybonus upgrade cert says "Booking Class DL - OY, RY, SY Delta Agent." Is that the space I'm looking for?

xliioper

No, RP is no longer used for mileage/cert upgrade inventory, the cert is correct. I assume you are aware of the restrictions on these certs (Y/B/M fares required for the "Full Fare" upgrade certs, and K+ fares for "Select Fare" upgrade certs).

mabramovich

I think so...I was rebooked into full Y on a route so hoping to take advantage. How do I search for those classes? Tweet DL and explicitly ask for those 3 buckets?