Luke.Travel

Hello All... Long time reader first time poster.

I'm a Delta Diamond and I received a complimentary upgrade to first class for the flight back from Las Vegas to Cincinnati Sunday night for myself and my brother (flying on the same reservation). However, when I got to the gate the Delta App showed that I was no longer checked in for the flight, and my boarding pass was gone. Luckily I had a paper boarding pass as a backup. Then, when scanned it printed out new seat assignment slips showing us moved out of first class to Comfort+.

I asked the gate agent about this, and she referred me to her colleague. She stated that I was downgraded because my seats were given to "paying confirmed customers". I e-mailed Delta letting them know I was disappointed with this and they responded that it shouldn't have happened, but they were sorry and would share the info for future improvement. They also didn't completely edit the form letter response they sent me, so it felt really personal when it said the flight was from Detroit to Knoxville. Made it feel like they really care.

Anyone else experience your "confirmed" upgrade being sold out from under you? For a night flight like this it was pretty disappointing to not be in first class when I had been expecting it. Really makes lose trust in Delta when things like this happen.

Thanks,
Luke

bretthexum

Hearing about this more and more. Whether you're silver or diamond, this should NEVER happen. Ugh.

KDCAflyer

You're due $200 and miles. I got $600 when I was downgraded on part of an itinerary upgraded using a RUC.

How far out did it happen? I wouldn't rule out the GA stealing your upgrade and giving it to someone else.

FSUnole03

FSUnole03

The CES is going on in LAS right now so wouldn't surprise me if a HVC (i.e. 360 member) called in and requested to be put on that flight and this was the outcome.

AANYC1981

Absolutely ridiculous

KDCAflyer

That's been standard practice from what I've seen. Any downgrade from the premium cabin, regardless of how you got there, should yield $200 minimum.

pgh234

I had that happen to me once on a much shorter flight. DL apologized by making it rain SkyPesos on me. No money though for RU downgrades.

Luke.Travel

The upgrade cleared at least 2 hours before boarding, that's when I noticed the upgrade. I am not sure when the downgrade happened. If I knew that I wouldn't have been trying to board the plane without a working boarding pass like a jack wagon.


I agree. I wouldn't expect money. I was hoping for a goodwill gesture though. I responded to the apology letter pointing out the errors and letting them know that I was disappointed with the original situation, and that when responding to their error, they sent me an apology with more errors it gave me little hope that my feedback would lead to future improvements. They responded promptly to that with a goodwill gesture of 10,000 sky miles for each of us. ^ I'm satisfied with this response to this specific situation. However I'm concerned about the future of complimentary upgrades as Delta continues to erode their medallion benefits in hopes of increased revenue.

Luke

WidgetKid

It seems like what might have happened here was that there was a confirmed F passenger without a seat assignment. The confirmed passenger checked in after the gate agent had cleared upgrades (prematurely early), and so that upgrade had to be rescinded to give the confirmed passenger their seat.

If this is what happened, it was a simple mistake by a gate agent - not a matter of a seat being sold out from under an upgrade.

PayItForward

Sounds very likely.
Brings up the question, when a mistake happens, do we always need to go after the employee / company.
We are "usually" more understanding when a Hotel room pre-upgrade gets rescind due to mistakes.

Luke.Travel

I feel the need to give them feedback just to be aware that this is happening so they can look at their process. It is likely they processed the upgrades too soon. However, when the upgrade clears and then is taken away, it makes people grumpy. I think Delta needs to know when they do things that make passengers unhappy. If their apology letter had been accurate I probably would have not pressed the issue further. To be honest, in general the people at Delta have been friendly and helpful to me, and it's why I fly almost exclusively with them.

Luke

Often1

DL is well aware that this is happening and condones the practice. The DG and subsequent sale of the paid seat to presumably an HVC are all recorded keystrokes and employees don't do this sort of stuff unless they know that their employer will back them up.

DL does tend to toss those $200 customer service gestures for any DG, even though all it is required to do is refund the fare difference, e.g. $0.

All of this points to simply handling this stuff at the gate. OP would never have been UG because the seat would have been sold and there never would have been an issue.

davetravels

Every word of Airlines' CoCs are geared toward THEM!!!

Personally, I don't hava problem with holding their feet to the fire when they goof.

ijgordon

I think it's unlikely a gate agent was clearing upgrades two hours before departure. And a seat assignment shouldn't matter, the availability wouldn't have been there if the reservation was confirmed.