flyerCO

Be careful they don't upgrade you to R. Since it's used for domestic F some agents think it's D1. Mainly since previously there would be either R or O, not both.

cur

i dunno how this is surprising considering
https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/d...-upgrades.html

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....5/12/17/42581/

flyerCO

He never said upgrades are going away. He explained why giving away the whole cabin wasn't a smart business move. Only reason there was so much space in past, the product was vastly overpriced. I can tell you 15 years ago I never bought business, only upgraded to it. Nowadays most travel is paid F/J.

ryandc99

If you are having trouble with agents via the phone, please tweet and handle this via DM. Its quick, painless, and the agents understand how to do it properly.

MSPeconomist

AFAIK DL phone agents (and airport agents, etc.) don't have internet access except for DL websites. Also, unless they're very familiar with FT, why would they believe that the official DL representative here really works for DL (just because you say so)?

dilbertsdaddy

An agent who does not understand the GUC/RUC program? You must be kidding!

I would be more surprised if you found someone who could process it. This entire program is completely broken.

It could be easily automated. Crazy talk, I know.

I understand the reduction in free upgrades, but I would max out my certificate redemptions if the program worked. But right now that would be a waste of time.

The suites do not look good at all in the pics. More privacy is great for sleeping, but it looks cramped for eating, working, watching movies, etc. Maybe the pics are misleading, but I am a whole lot bigger than the small dude they use in the pics, and even he has little room!

rylan

There was plenty of privacy with the reverse herringbone setup used on the 330 and 747. Even with the slider closed, its not like you become invisible... anyone walking by can still see over the door/seat.

bubbashow

Really? You wonder? Have you seen the reactions official responses have garnered in the past? Look at posts like "Workarounds for Minimum Spend" and there is your answer. Just because people fly a lot doesn't mean they are necessarily the group Delta wants to court. They certainly don't want to address perceived "Shenanigans" and other things about which people get hot and bothered.

hockeyinsider

One of the 'reporters' for The Points Guy blog was gushing over the new A350 after Delta wined and dined him for two days. Except he's bigger than the model in the picture that Delta distributed -- he isn't fat -- but he's cramped. Plus, he reported that the door on the suite doesn't actually close.

The Points Guy is a great resource for award redemption information, but their people don't understand elite status or that sort of thing. Their reporter was praising comfort-plus then gets a middle-seat in comfort-plus and complains. Karma.

aero0729

Delta is not confirming GUCs on these flights...at all.
Delta is pricing mileage seats 160K and up.. 200K one way. Would you a 120,000 miles premium to be surrounded by a plastic wall?
Delta food and beverage one Business Class is by far the weakest of the US3.
Delta cut Comfort+ to try and force revenue into higher cabins??

Delta One Suites should and hopefully will fail. the A350 is a shame , not something DL should be celebrating.

BenA

We're not litigating in court here - the point is simply that OP should feel comfortable escalating if they get an incorrect answer from a front line agent and asking them to double-check their information through their own internal sources. I imagine the conversation going something like:

"Can you double check that policy? The terms and conditions on the web site say it should be possible to upgrade from economy to Delta One with a single certificate."

and if the agent responds with some variant of "the policy has changed and that's out of date, sorry":

"Do you mind verifying that with a supervisor? In a social media discussion I follow, a Delta representative confirmed just this week that the global upgrade policy hasn't changed, so I think there may be some confusion here that they may be able to resolve. I'm happy to provide a link to that discussion if it helps."

Even if the agent isn't able to browse to FlyerTalk (although I imagine many of the work-from-home SLC agents would be able to, at least), the goal is really to get the agent or supervisor to follow up internally and figure out where the discrepancy is occurring. And if they still refuse, OP can then follow up with SkyMilesTeam or the customer service process to get assistance.

My experience has been that most agents aren't adversarial - they want to help and would be more than happy to look into a policy clarification that allows a positive outcome.

rylan

What would not be surprising is that there is zero availability for GUC used to D1 on the 350, and only be processing upgrades at the gate for any remaining seats. With such a small cabin, I suspect it will be selling out more often than not, and for those times that don't will only be a few seats for GUC airport upgrades.

hockeyinsider

I'm not a lawyer, but that strikes me as dangerous. I remember quite a few retailers have gotten in trouble for advertising something as being available that was never available in reality or calling something a sale when it's never sold at regular price.

American has gotten a lot of bad publicity for not having any award availability on routes like Sydney, Australia. It actually had to open some up.

stencil

So this statement: "Diamond Medallion Members can use one Global Upgrade Certificate to upgrade directly to a Delta One suite from any cabin of service offered on the flight – including Main Cabin (excluding Basic Economy)."

Doesn't imply that only DMs can do this?

flyerCO

No. They just word it like that because only DM earns GUC. A PM isnt going to be earning one.