upgrade for $ to Delta ONE INTERNATIONAL
 

Within 24 hours of dep., AA often allows pax to pay to upgrade from Y to bc/fc if there are available seats AND no one has used their intl upgrade "stickers" called SWU to buy-up*--usually around $500, does DL ever do this?
In particular I'm flying JFK-CPH-JFK 6/12 outbound, 6/26 return, I'm seated in C+ and EXPERT FLYER shows some availability for 6/12 and more for 6/26.
*This option usually is offered on the KIOSKS.

Based on what I have seen and read very rarely and probably only if they are oversold in coach. I personally have never seen this type of offer at a kiosk.

Not really....
 

I travel TATL extensively, and in my experience Delta only allows a buy up with miles. They really don't have a DoD program for a discounted buy up on check in.

They seem to be much more aggressive with this for transpac especially in cases where they also have PS.

They don't seem to do this much if at all for transatlantic, especially for a specialty route like JFK-CPH. Anything's possible, but the D1 load would have to be very light (isn't this flown on 16 seat 752s anyways? If so, there is never a buy up offer on those because they're always at least half full).

As one more data point, I've never seen it offered for TATL - either in advance (e.g. when pulling up the trip on DL.com), or when checking in online. Anything's possible, but I wouldn't count on it.

DL offers this directly in the app or on DL.com (if available) -- they don't wait until DOD as AA/UA do

FWIW, I have seen it offered for TATL but it's random (it was never offered to me on JFK - MAD last month despite D1 going out with a couple of seats empty, on the flip side I was offered a paid upgrade on my JFK - LHR award ticket in July and last year had a couple TATL flights with an offer around $900).

FWIW, based on availability per EF I doubt you'll get an offer -- DL won't oversell D1 and sitting at J2/Z1 for 6/12 I'm guessing they'll hold any upgrades for the gate for walk-up fares or IRROPs (which means no cash upgrade). For 6/26 it's not looking great either with Z0 15 days out. Plus neither flight looks to be in danger of an oversell in Y so unlikely to be any op-ups.

6/12: J2 C2 D2 I2 Z1 W2 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 K9 L9 U9 T9 X9 V9 E9
6/26: J3 C3 D3 I3 Z0 W0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 K9 L9 U6 T3 X3 V0 E9

I believe that post was about DL's FCM offers (sometime between ticketing and check-in) and not T-24 day-of-departure offers.

IME there is very occasionally a buy-up offer at check-in, but this seems much more prevalent on domestic routes than int'l. DL is definitely okay with letting D1 seats fly empty.

My random DP - I have LHR>JFK>ATL booked for July. Getting a pretty standard ~$250 buy up offer for JFK>ATL but nothing for LHR>JFK.

+1. DH was next to the (AF) MSP-CDG departure gate last night. The GA was offering business seats "at a discounted price for anyone interested." Not sure what that discount was, but if seats are open, AF will sell the upgrade.

Since the merger, I've averaged 5-6 TATL trips a year. In that time my offers have been...

1) October 2010, $450 upgrade to J on KLM LAX-AMS at airport checkin. I had already paid $100 for Economy Comfort -- I had done this before I made DM but was newly minted DM at flight time. Declined when they wouldn't credit what I already paid for EC. I was a bit more cash poor that year.

2) August 2013, $400 upgrade to J on the DTW-LHR leg of a LAX-DTW-LHR trip at OCLI . My (non-status) traveling companion got no offer 15 minutes later. It looked like Y was oversold or close to.

3) October 2015, $340 upgrade CDJ-LAX to PE at OLCI. Happily took it as this was an IRROP as our connection thru AMS was canceled. Wasn't looking fwd to the 10 across Y on a 777. Was traveling with 6 other people (all non status) and I was the only one who got an offer.

4) May 2019 (ie. a few weeks ago) $700 upgrade to J at OLCI on AMS-LAX on KLM 787. Since I hadn't been on a 787 yet I took it -- I had been a long trip and I was tired. Plus She Who Must Be Obeyed was happy for the new addition to Her Huisje collection -- how it became "Hers" I don't know since She had flown exactly zero of the flights. I did claims rights to the jenever within...

The first three I was DM and the last PM. The moral of the story is if you want paid upgrades, fly AF/KLM :)

What a bizarre collection of punctuation/syntax.