Delta Revises Complimentary Upgrade Policy for Silver Medallions on Award Tickets
Oct 11, 2016, 7:06 am
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: DL DM 2MM, Marriott LT Titanium, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 15,193
As mentioned above, nothing wrong with offering this. Its a nice PR and goodwill gesture for FOs. Sure it won't happen often, but on those off days and lighter loaded routes the upgrade will be appreciated.
Oct 11, 2016, 7:10 am
#17
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: YYF/YLW
Programs: AA, DL, AS, VA, WS Silver
Posts: 5,951
Yup. The fact that they're willing to include Alaska Airlines and hotel (SPG?) elites on the upgrade list is a pretty good indication of how much it costs DL to add more groups to the bottom of the upgrade list.
Oct 11, 2016, 10:57 am
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
This is great. As others have mentioned, it doesn't impact higher-tier elites at all, and ultimately costs DL nothing to do, so why not?
Mrs. Lee fluctuates between FO and general member, and there have definitely been flights in the past where she's been on an award (either as my companion or on her own) where F went out with empty seats and we were tucked away in the back.
Particularly since C+ now requires an "upgrade", this helps in that regard, too.
Mrs. Lee fluctuates between FO and general member, and there have definitely been flights in the past where she's been on an award (either as my companion or on her own) where F went out with empty seats and we were tucked away in the back.
Particularly since C+ now requires an "upgrade", this helps in that regard, too.
Oct 11, 2016, 11:29 am
#21
Join Date: Mar 2010
Programs: DL PM, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 8,414
Good point, I had not thought about FO award ticket rule preventing C+ access. My guess is that this is exactly why they are rolling this out--they wanted to give upgrade access at 24 hours to C+, and it was just not worth splitting hairs to allow C+ but not F upgrdes.
Oct 11, 2016, 12:18 pm
#23
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: MSP
Programs: Marriott LT Titanium, UA Silver (via Marriott)
Posts: 642
Oct 11, 2016, 2:44 pm
#24
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: CLT-adjacent
Programs: AARP, DL Skymiles, Marriot Bonvoy, Moe's Rewards
Posts: 968
But hey, I won two t-shirts at my local bar's monthly bingo night last night so maybe I'll get lucky!!!
Oct 11, 2016, 6:55 pm
#25
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SEA, NW/DL 1.6Million Miler
Programs: DL 1MM Annual Silver,AS 100K 22-24, AS 75K 15-21
Posts: 4,278
This FO million miler is a wee bit happy, though, with likeliness of companion upgrade filling the ranks above me, not too optimistic. I'm content with luggage fee waiver and the preferred seats in the mean time. 
Jiburi
Jiburi
Oct 11, 2016, 11:30 pm
#26
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: DUS
Programs: DL, HHonors, Bonvoy, Hyatt
Posts: 2,072
This is fantastic. There are definitely F cabins that either go empty or have NRSA because FO couldn't get a free upgrade on a miles ticket. I asked nicely at the gate once and got it, but it was definitely against policy.
Oct 12, 2016, 1:21 am
#27
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: IND
Programs: DL PM & 2MM™, Lifetime HHonors Diamond
Posts: 20,889
A thought: Why not have Silvers win x per cent of all upgrades, instead of always be shoved to the back of the e-line? It would give someone a reward for reaching Silver and it would stop all the worrying about the order of the upgrade line that we see reflected on this forum.
Nov 1, 2016, 11:58 am
#30
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: JAX
Programs: Delta DM, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 317
No - if they were both medallions then yes, but because there is a general member and there's an award ticket it makes it a non-upgradeable ticket.