Another interesting aspect of C+ upgrades is that the past few times I was involved in the F upgrade gate lottery, the first upgrade was made to C+, often 60 minutes before departure.

Never understood this...The alcohol and snack basket does nothing for me and pretty much never drink. I frequently decline meals in F as well unless something is particularly appetizing. My calorie budget is better served elsewhere.

Wish there was a way to sort people into different groups.. those who care about snacks and alcohol and those who are about avoiding knee pain and having room to work. Seems like Delta could increase overall WTP that way... ;)

I’m a United 1K who is evaluating other programs. I’m curious about something. Do you folks have to waitlist for economy comfort? As a UA gold, my co-worker has never been in regular economy (no waitlist for economy comfort although he rarely gets upgraded to F.

As a 1K, I’ve never been in regular economy in 11 years—but upgrades to F are much lower than reported here for Diamond fliers who seem to get upgraded to F about 80% of the time.

Waitlist for C+ It is dependent on route and time of booking. If you are based in a non-Delta hub and flying a "reverse commute", you will not have many issue as a Platinum or Diamond medallion in getting a Comfort+ seat so long as you book at least 5 days in advance. If you are based at a Delta hub (especially Atlanta) and fly longer routes (e.g., Atlanta to west coast), and don't book far in advance (at least 3 weeks), you will frequently not get Comfort+. As a Diamond, I would be able to get C+ about 50% of the time, but I would generally be in middle seats. My aisle/window C+ hit rate is around 10-15%, Y about 75-80%, and F maybe 5-7%. But this is because I am based in Atlanta, fly long elite-heavy routes, and book usually only 6-10 days in advance.

Part of the issue is that Delta has far fewer C+ seats than United. For example, most United 739s have around 60 Y+ seats (for 167 total seats) whereas Delta has only 21 C+ seats in the same plane (with 180 total seats). As such, there is a greater supply risk for Delta flyers than United flyers on most aircraft.