25K miles cost Delta about $250. The GUC+ you propose would cost them thousands. That's a very easy choice.

FIXED that for'ya:

Int'l J seats RARELY go out empty ;) ;) ;).

The OP's newfangled version of GUC would seriously PEEVE OFF nonrevs.

No, it wouldn't. Any seat a nonrev might get would first go to a paying pax using an ordinary GUC. So by reducing the total number of GUCs, OP's version would help non-revs. (And by displacing paying pax, it would help nonrevs even more.)

Displacing paying passengers wouldn't help nonrevs in this case since it would only occur when the cabin is sold out.

Well, actually, it might help them a bit, since there's still the possibility of no-shows in a sold-out cabin. In this case, if a paying pax had been displaced, there would be one less GUC on the waitlist.

Inventory is a business decision that DL has the right to control. I have no issue with that.

What I have an issue with is that the program does not work properly.......confirming at booking eliminates this problem

Well, maybe

I do understand the logic you're using. It just seems to me that, if GUCs had instant guaranteed confirmability, a lot more would be chosen, and ultimately used, particularly on last minute bookings. I think that many families going on vacation would want to confirm UG space in advance, and wouldn't want to risk not getting the UG or not sitting together, so, they wouldn't choose the current GUCs as a Choice Benefit, and many go to the gate and probably go unused, and I'd bet, many are forgotten and simply go to waste.

Somehow, the little voices in my head can see it both ways. :D The bottom line is, that, it ain't NEVER gonna happen! Too much revenue at risk.

I think the simplest answer is that, Delta will never give you something YOU WANT - if it costs them. So, the argument that they should offer us something for free just because it might make us feel a little better about our "so called" Loyalty, when it CLEARLY would cost them some lost J sales, doesn't fly.

They will confirm at ticket purchase if the seat is available.

They do have instant confirmability, if the seat is available (for GUC upgrades). They don't when they expect to be able to sell the seat for money.

Why do so many people think that FC upgrades are the only reason to participate in a FFP?

For at least one person (me), those upgrades are firmly in the bottom half of my priorities, as I do indeed WFBF.

I should've said - - -

Guaranteed confirmability EVERY SEAT / EVERY FLIGHT, as the OP wants.

And as has been noted, that would cost Delta actual revenue, so it's not going to happen.

Yes, as has been noted by me in post #37 .

:)