ijgordon

Well, requiring YBM fares was another way they used to say they don't really exist (especially when M fares were more expensive than deep discount I/Z fares). At least that's gotten a little better. But it's a total crock that DL can't seem to handle them at the gate while AA and UA can.
That said, IME, all the airlines are usually pretty good about clearing most of the seats the day before. I think other than some prime business routes like JFK-LHR, there aren't very many people that buy tickets to Asia within 24 hours of departure. Even to LHR, they probably see more flight changes (given high frequencies) than new bookings.
Of course even if they release 5 upgrades, there's no guarantee the OP or any lower-level elite, will make the cutoff.

Mr. Tickets

Just for the record, it was 3CForme that mentioned "move on"

jdrtravel

oops! Sorry! Fixed.

ryandc99

ATL-BRU cleared about 30 hours before departure, with 4 seats in J open at 30 hours before departure.

audidudi

Don't forget that to be even eligible for upgrading with miles, you must have a Y, B, M, H, Q, or K fare for TPAC flights.

shipitfish

So, I just called to ask the DM desk to try to do an upgrade with miles for PDX->NRT in a K fare and NRT->PDX in an M fare for mid-June travel. Representative said there was no availability. I asked if I could be waitlisted, and he put me on hold for about 10 minutes, and his supervisor told him that it was impossible to waitlist for upgrade with miles. Granted, I called the DM desk late on a friday afternoon US/Eastern time, so it's not the A Team I suspect, but this was a surprising answer.
I called back and the new rep wait listed me right away. It was 85k miles for the K fare, and 55k for the M fare.

Once she wait-listed me, it appeared as "upgrade Waitlisted" in the web interface, similar to what I've seen with GUCs, although I have this vague memory that GUCs made that extra D1 record with an unassigned seat... do they not do that anymore?

BTW, the second rep also told me that I would move from that waitlist to the airport standby waitlist automatically, just with lower priority than a GUC. I wonder if she was right; I'll post back here either way.

rylan

Wow those upgrade rates are pretty steep.

Regarding the extra entry when you are waitlisted, my experience is that it isn't consistent... however the 'ghost' seatmap with unassigned D1 seat generally shows up when you go to pick seats for your existing flights.

jdrtravel

No, this is incorrect. I have been told the same thing by a phone agent, only to later find out they were wrong. I have also been told by phone agents that "DL is no longer offering a WL for mileage upgrades" only to call back and have someone else offer to put me on a WL.

Mileage upgrades at DL have always been a mess. NWA actually did this well, including offering online mileage upgrades for any flight (when available) but DL just can't get their act together on this.

dmarge18

Happy to say the mileage upgrade to ICN cleared at about 60 hours out. So there is hope after all; they just like making you sweat.