I thought YBYL was dead?
 

Apparently YBYL is still the name of the game in LAX.

Boarded DL101 today to ATL. No announcements were made in the gate house and I boarded number 2 on the first class upgrade list. I kept an eye on the list just in case somebody no-showed. Sure enough, the 2 names below me got upgraded into 5A and 5D. Went out to talk to the gate agent who made it seem like my fault that I boarded the plane when called. He claims he made an announcement, but had that happened, I wouldn't have boarded.

I've had agents come down with battlefield upgrades all the time and thought it was the new Delta policy to clear the upgrade list in order based on what I read here.. What's up with this dude?

Supposedly . . . .

The new policy is, that, time permitting, the gate agents are allowed to upgrade from pax who already boarded - - NOT that they have to! It's still a very grey area. Not at all cut and dry!

DL published a memo saying if time permits, than GAs should go onboard and UG PAX so it's not going to be 100% dead. However it doesn't seem this is affective as I've seen many instances of GAs not coming onboard and UG PAX even after the May 2017 memo. In your situation if you had enough time to go out and speak to the GA than this just seems a case of a lazy GA.

Yea - I noticed about 5 minutes after I boarded which would have been about 30 minutes before they closed the door.

GA discretion = #teamboardlast
Nothing has really changed.

If YB you always run the risk of YL ,regardless of DL policy
GA's want to get the plane out on time, can be lazy, ....

Used to work so well on (the old) United, they were able to gauge it and still get flights out on time. Upgraded passengers waited at the gate podium to be called and got on accordingly. Then CO's way came in (same as DL by boarding pax and then calling them back up to the front if upgraded). What a cluster - you send someone back to row 32 and then go retrieve him while he pulls and drags his stuff upstream against the tide of passengers still getting on/ settled ? If anything would delay a flight it is that scenario. Never made any sense to me, still doesn't.

What's really annoying is if I'm on the bubble (not very often) and ask the GA if FC has BOARDED full, they will often just tell you FC has checked in full. I was traveling through LAX at the end of May with a +1 and was 4/5 out of 6 for 4 seats according to the app and GIDS and told the GA that one of us would take the FC seat but he precedes to tell me "that there would be no FC for me tonight" and only 3 seats remained (I glanced up at the GIDS while he told me this and nothing had changed 4 & 5 for 4 seats). About 2 min later he calls me up and tells me I have one seat left (Shocker!) and I tell him again I'll take it.

I always ask the GA what policy they will be adhering to when I'm on the bubble. Usually just asking nicely will compel GA to pull from back, but Sunday the GA in Denver stated unequivocally Denver goes by YBYL. I'm not sure if she was speaking for Denver or just herself. I will still always ask, even in Denver.

Yep happened to me last week too. I had to reiterate three times "has it boarded full" until she understood. I was number 1 on the list with 0 seats available.

Hung around and I boarded last because second to last person who boarded was the last FC seat hanging out in the terminal :)

Maybe you guys should try asking a less ambiguous question. :P

I always ask "are there any no-shows" and I've never gotten a misleading response.

While I do not agree with #teamboardlast...i had a major victory a few weeks ago. I was flying with my wife JFK-TXL on waitlisted GUCs. There was one seat available so I let her have it while I decided to wait by the gate and wait for no shows. After she boarded I noticed that the gate screen still read Reserved seats (unclaimed) = 1 (just like it did before she was upgraded).

While boarding zone 3, I asked the gate agents if first boarded full. They said "Yes" and told me to board. I asked about the remaining seat and they said " 1st checked in full". Then I asked for a second time if it boarded full and that there are not empty seats on the plane. They said yet again that all D1 passengers are on the plane. I asked yet again why the GIDs screen disagrees with them. They said they do not know.

I stepped back again for 5 minutes. Boarding was completed by T-20 and they were calling me on the PA to board. I once again asked about the seat and they annoyingly said "first has boarded full, please get on the plane or we will cancel your seat"

Finally, a light bulb went off on the 2nd agents brain. He whispered to the other gate agents that a checked in DL employee (who was given revenue space in D1 for some reason) has not boarded. By T-5...they finally cleared my D1 upgrade. If it wasn't for the GIDs, I would have never known.

This. So much this.

They will do what they want, period. Including upgrading someone off the standby list (happened to me Mon) who may or may not be nonrev...

Unless there's some pressing reason for me to board early, I don't board if I'm waitlisted for an upgrade. I simply don't trust the answers GAs give about whether FC has boarded full or not and whether they will upgrade someone who has already boarded. To me, it's just not worth the risk, especially when GAs have an incentive to follow YBYL if the upgraded seats would otherwise go to nonrevs.

I would never presume that a GA is going to board to find you unless you ask and get a real "yes" as opposed to a nod, grunt or something like that.

It is a lot easier, faster & neater to simply call the next person standing at the gate and hand them a BP than it is to retrieve the list, force a boarded pax, board, find the pax and have him swim upstream.