LoganFlyer

It could've been a very last minute check in by someone who was confirmed in F all along but didn't have a seat assignment.

apodo77

That is probably what happened and makes sense. No comfort needed. Since I was with a companion I wouldn't have taken the upgrade anyway for a single seat. Was just morbidly curious while bored as ATL airport didn't keep anything open in T despite the entire terminal still full of flights and DL closed the SC to boot - were directing people to A.
Figured y'all would have some great ideas and didn't disappoint as alwyas. Thanks everyone for participating

findark

Almost certainly this.

WillBarrett_68

Is this true? It never even occurred to me that the "seats available" number in the upgrade list would just be a straight count of unassigned seats rather than actual inventory.

Regardless, I think the IROPS theory seems to be the most likely.

WillBarrett_68

By policy, no. In practice.... sometimes.

findark

Pretty sure it is - definitely true for C+ and also "Available" on the standby list (seat count includes all cabins) that it's just counting unassigned and blocked seats.

MCO Flyer

The “seats available” in the app is only showing unassigned seats. However if this was indeed someone who was paid F, but didn’t select the last F seat, then they would have cleared under the “standby” list.

ecaarch

I had a similar situation once where I was #1 with 1 available 10 minutes before boarding started. When I didn't get the u/g, I asked the GA who politely explained that #2 on the list pulled out a credit card and bought up to an F fare. Highly unusual, but it does happen. No shenanigans - just unlucky. YMMV.

TheHorta

More than a few times, when I’m at a gate and it looks like I won’t be getting the UG when there’s a single seat available I’ll call and pay to UG to F (no FCM offer, just a straight call to the DM desk). I won’t show up as UG’d but the seat suddenly becomes unavailable and I’m (obviously) not on the UG list any longer.

Admittedly, it gives me a wry sense of pleasure as I scope the gate for disgruntled pax who were confident of their UG.

Im willing to wager that I am not the only one.

ijgordon

I assume that's only for passengers who checked in and were unable to get seat assignments at that time (mostly BE pax), in addition to true standbys. They get a priority verification pass I believe, and then clear the standby list.

If a passenger made a F reservation with no seat assignment (wouldn't be unusual for a travel agent booking), then s/he would have been assigned a seat at the time of check-in. I don't know why that would show on the standby list (s/he certainly wouldn't have been on the standby list BEFORE s/he checked in).

Regardless, OP doesn't show the standby list from the app.
Of course checking ExpertFlyer would show whether that seat was really available (for a booking) or already booked, at least until T-30m I think.

I really don't see any evidence that this was anything beyond an already booked FC pax getting a last minute seat assignment, but as mentioned, we don't have all the evidence that would have been available.

LoganFlyer

Yup. "Seats available" is a count of unassigned seats, not seats for sale. This is confirmable by checking upcoming flights against ExpertFlyer--eventually you'll find one where "seats available" in F is greater than the count for sale.

That said, I do agree IROPS is much more likely here.

btonkid12345

I always check how many seats DL is selling on the flight in F. Sometimes it might show F as sold out but with multiple seats still unassigned and thus showing on the count on the UG list.

Perfect example: I was flying LAX-ATL in paid First but called to SDC. The flight I wanted to move to only showed 1 seat for sale in F, and after my SDC was processed, it showed sold out.

But, the app upgrade standby list showed 6 seats unassigned in First and plenty of people on the UG list.

Imagine the disappointment of 1-6 on the list when the gate agent assigned all 6 of those seats to a family of 6 in paid J, who were connecting from Australia on Virgin to LAX-ATL on First, but never had seats selected.

The GA did this between T-45 and T-30. Also, the poor family got random seats all throughout the cabin, but at least they were in First Class.

MSPeconomist

I hope that "poor family" didn't then proceed to try to snatch or swap seats so to get all their favorite seats under the guise of sitting together on the flight.

obscure2k

Thanks for a spirited discussion. Time to lock this one up.
Obscure2k
Delta Moderator