ULDB65

MSP-SFO and SFO-MSP a day later, 757's, both cleared at 5 days out.

iflyalexair

Sunday, I cleared at the gate on a V fare as a DM on SFO-JFK. 6:15am. I was #4 for 4. #5 also cleared after someone no showed.

grandchampion

FO and non-status (2 year old) companion cleared at window for May 9 ORD-LGA 9:30am shuttle. (Don't worry - the two year old was very well behaved in first class.)

defrosted

Admittedly, this is conjecture in my part, but FO in 2017 saw more upgrades to first then I have got in the same time frame as GM in 2018. Maybe due to FCM as discussed on FT ad nauseam, fare class (as now my flights are cheaper with WN competition), but where I used to get upgrades on Saturday mornings or mid week flights, it is far less likely. More often I am 3rd for 2, or 6th for 0, basically close but not close enough. I pretty much fly the same route each month, so all else is fairly equal for comparison.

DCAproducer

DCA-JFK (AM flight) flight this week, cleared at PM window
JFK-SJU flight this week, cleared at PM window

I wasn't surprised by either of these

slykens

New Silver with DL... Last time I had status was UA in 2003... My how things have changed.

For DTW-LAX, at checkin 24 hours out was 2/2 for F with 6 available, 2/2 for C+ with 2 available but never cleared. List populated around me and ended up 30/40 or so for F and 8/14 for C+ at departure.

Only one person on the status upgrade list got cleared into C+ but five people ended up clearing from the overall standby list after the F list was processed.

C+ had one seat open and one non-rev crew member... What's up with that? Should I expect this to be the norm with DL? I was also told I should call 24 hours out and ask them to process the upgrade - does that even work anymore? Seems to me DL wants to hold the inventory as long as possible to try to upsell at checkin.

ATOBTTR

Other people don't show on the UG list until they check-in, even though they are on the flight and have a higher priority. So what happened here is plenty of people who had a higher priority than you (status and fare-class) had not checked-in right at T-24 hours when you checked and saw you were 2 of 2 on the list. You will also find seats come and go throughout the day. DL has a pretty flexible FC Same-Day-Confirm (SDC) policy, so you may see several open FC seats at check-in, only for all the seats to be filled when you arrive at the airport because of people SDCing to your flight. Other passengers may be offered discounted buy-ups when they check-in that they opt to take advantage of.

The term here is "Shena" for "Shenanigans" as in "Upgrade Shenanigans" (there's a whole thread dedicated to it). However, there are several factors in play and this doesn't automatically mean the GA was engaging in "Shenanigans". The other factor is you may not know why the crew member in C+ was there. They could have been positive space and confirmed into C+ ahead of time. Another is that at least with DL, when you board, your name is removed from the gate upgrade list, so if you board before the GA has processed the upgrade list, you have removed yourself from the list. You can choose to wait at the gate, at potential risk of not getting overheard bin space, for the GA to clear you if there are open seats. Now DL has also supposedly implemented a policy giving GAs more flexibility in pulling passengers up on the plane if they find passengers have boarded before they process the list, but this is not required of the GA at this time; it's their judgement on what is best to get the flight out on time or without added delays. What did happen is you boarded though so you "removed" yourself from the upgrade list and the GA likely decided it wasn't worth finding out who else was on the C+ list and then ask around to see if a passenger who was in the main cabin wanted to move to C+. You can debate the pros and cons of the system but that is what it is.

No, it won't work. The phone agents won't be able to process the upgrade unless there is upgrade space available, and if you're on the upgrade list, you will be processed automatically if there is space.

slykens

I went back and checked the upgrade lists when the door was closed, that's where I got the final information from. I was curious to see if they actually cleared anyone from the lists. I do understand once I board I'm likely stuck where I'm at. Obviously it would make too much sense to clear the lists as much as as practical before the boarding call is made.

I'm paid F on the flight back so won't have another chance to test until next week when I'll be W from DTW-SFO. A month or so ago DL offered F upgrade on that for $200 one way - but it has since gone up to over $600. I suspect as Silver and award I will be near the bottom of the list for the F upgrade.

manacit

Had a good run the last week as a DM w/o reserve:

JFK-SEA on an L fare purchased 18h in advance - 1 of 12 for 1 seat, got the upgrade at T-40
SEA-SFO on a K fare purchased 3d in advance - cleared immediately
SFO-JFK redeye on a T fare - ended up 1 of 9 for 1 seat, cleared at T-40

I'm pleasantly surprised to actually get a D1 UG, but I will certainly take it. If only that flight was longer and you could get a real night's sleep..

pvn

Monday mid-day ATL-DFW MD-88 DM on a B fare (booked after upgrade window), 2 of 61 for 1 seat.

My DFW-ATL flight today (Tuesday, H fare, 717) cleared at T-72

bruininabag

Booked a couple award flights LAX-CUN back in January (when I was still DM, now a GM) for a wedding we were attending in April (departing Tues redeye, returning Mon morning) for an insane 18K Skymiles per person (priced at $350+)

UPGRADED ON BOTH LEGS AT THE GATE

LAX-CUN - 1/2 and 2/2 on a completely full flight, cleared at the gate
CUN-LAX - 3/5 and 4/5, cleared at the gate

Unbeknownst to me, US-Mexico flights are now eligible for complimentary upgrades with the recent changes. That said, we still received SkyClub access for traveling internationally as SkyTeam Elite Plus on both legs. All in all, very high value miles redemption that bookended a great trip to Cancun.

acrophobia

As a DM with the reserve card and having hit the AmEx waiver very early in the year... my upgrade success has been very poor. I haven’t kept careful statistics, but I would say well under 50%. That said, I’ve had a lot of LGA-MSP Monday flights, a lot of MSP-LGA Thursday evening flights, a lot of JFK-SFO-JFK trips, and a little bit of JFK-PDX-JFK, so travel patterns likely have more to do with it than anything else.

Separately, for some reason I am almost never offered FCM deals, and if I were I would be likely to act on them in many cases.

Ordhater

I had a rough start to the year, but the upgrade frequency has taken a turn for the better in the last two months. Last night I was upgraded at the window, on an X fare, for SLC-ATL. This is the first time I've ever had an upgrade before the gate on that route (and even at the gate is pretty rare).

btonkid12345

Awesome! Congrats! Did you get pushback at any point from any agents for being on the UG list on an award?

This was one of my crucial questions...if award tickets were UG eligible on AM (did you fly AM or DL operated flights?)

Agreed on SLC-ATL being rare. However I've had advance UGs on it too on SLC-ATL twice now since Feb

NewYorker545

PM w/ Delta Reserve AmEx
Upcoming LGA-ORD 5 days before flight
Return ORD-LGA 4 days before flight