Random Rant / Devaluation of Diamond status
 

This is getting a bit ridiculous. As a DM, I used to be at the top 3 on the upgrade list. For today's flight, I was #1 when I checked in. Now, I am #8 on the first leg, and #6 on the second leg.(DM, 1MM, Delta Reserve, fulfilled DM requirements for the year....). How did these other people manage to get ahead on the list :(. First flight has 62 people on the upgrade list and second flight has 43. The number of available 1st class seats also shrunk so what looked like a very good upgrade chance disappeared totally.

At this time of year people are trying to use up their soon-to-be-expired GUCs and RUCs. Last week I burnt an RUC on DL Comfort for a last minute booking as F was full. It was going to expire soon anyways. But it put me at number 1 of 50+ people even as a PM on both upgrade lists.

The upgrade list only reflects those who have checked-in so far. As people check-in after you, you will naturally move down the list as DM's with a higher fare class than yours check-in (Reserve card can also be a factor -- but only after fare class). It's also a Monday morning which is probably one of the worst times for upgrades due to very high percentage of regular business travelers on these flights (such as consultants).

Here what I have done to maximize my first class flying as a lowly FO this year

1) Avoid Monday morning flights; I was able to score a battlefield upgrade by flying out Tuesday midday instead recently
2) Upgrade with Skymiles when you anticipate a long upgrade list

#2 was particularly helpful last week when the upgrade list was 40 people long from ORD to LGA and I had confirmed into F a few days prior at 9,300 miles

Good job on both counts! It's nice to have some flexibility, since Tuesday is much better than Monday morning.

It's a lot of factors here.
1. Monday morning, is probably the single busiest time of the week for business travel
2. As mentioned, it's getting to the end of the year so people are burning certificates
3. The later it is in the year the more DM's there are going to be as more and more 1st time DM's are qualifying every day, and those who won't make it haven't dropped yet
4. October historically has been a very busy business travel month. Everyone is done with vacations, and there are really only 45 or so business travel days left in the year. Not many business flights the week of Thanksgiving, or after mid-December, so if there are meetings that have to happen before EotY, it's right now.

Sounds like you're already in C+ which tells me you booked early which means low fare class. The difference on my routes on even an a H vs. M fare and is huge - I might be #15 with an H fare versus #2 or 3 with an M fare. If you're an T, L, U fare, it's highly unlikely you'll score an upgrade on a Monday AM.

Not exactly a great habit but if I am only 10 days out before travel I'll wait until T-6 when M fares kick in to help score a C+ seat at the gate. F won't happen (either 0 seats or it goes to someone with a RUC), but 10B/C is way better than 36C.

If you're going to do that you could just... go ahead and buy an M fare at 10 days out.

If they have to book through Concur or their companies travel tool, they likely don't have that option.

True, but since he's not purchasing refundable tickets in the first place, chances are that it's a violation of company policy to purposefully delay the purchase of a ticket to book a higher/more expensive fare class to get greater frequent flyer benefit (i.e., a policy that requires tickets be purchased as far in advance as possible). Personally, something I would be careful about.

I have no doubt that it is a technical violation (and certainly if I'm three+ weeks out with clear travel needs I'll definitely buy the ticket then), but if we're talking about a few days, the difference between an H and an M fare is small due to the higher corporate discount on the M fare. The difference in fare one way is usually less than $40 on a $500 ticket, which is significantly less than the $135 Comfort+ one way upcharge which is in policy (if, of course, it was available to begin with). $40 is also within the in-policy discretionary amount for airline preference when there are two eligible itineraries.

In short, I'm not too worried.

I'm surprised that you can (try to) use the same RUC for C+ and then for a second "upgrade" to FC. I know that for GUCs, if you use one for the PS upgrade, it's considered used and cannot also be used to go from PS to D1 when O class upgrade inventory later becomes available. [However, I wonder whether this would work if the ticket hadn't yet been reissued into PS.]

To clarify I used the RUC at the gate for either FC or C+ as the normal C+ automatic upgrade at booking was full due to the last minute booking. I was number 1 on both upgrade lists and I agreed to burn the certificate even if F was full since it was going to expire soon. So at the gate I was either going to go from MC to C+ or from MC to F.

This is where Skymiles FCM come very handy to upgrade if as a DM/PM an upgrade has not been received and you really want to travel in the front cabin.

A few times I've received a FCM offer for a 4hr monday flight on a route that used to be an upgrade heaving for FO but nowadays DL knows last minute FC tickets are sold. 10,900 Miles and I am confirmed up front.

I hope you at least were given a very nice aisle (or window if you prefer) seat. To burn an upgrade cert for a middle seat would hurt.

Outside of what everybody else has mentioned, I wonder if a lot of people just buy up via upgrade offers. Sometimes those deals are pretty compelling, and DL would much rather capture that extra revenue than give it away.

I’ve been doing this on my Tpac flights for not much oop with great frequency.

On Monday mornings and Thursday afternoon/evenings, the chances of an upgrade are extremely low, even as a DM.
This is peak road warrior / business travel times.

Even when I've been GM and now PM, I do very well on upgrades when I travel on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturdays.

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me unless I'm misunderstanding the way GUCs and RUCs work.

AFAIK, they expire 12 months from when you choose them as your Platinum and/or Diamond gift. You can choose them any time from when you achieve status until the January after the status year ends - that's often 18 months or so. So I don't see why the expirations would all be bunched up at the end of the year.

Let me preface by saying I don’t if this happens because , thankfully, it has not happened to me - if a passenger is confirmed in First on an alternate flight that suffers an IROP and can be confirmed in coach but not F on your flight - do they move to the top of the list for upgrades ?

A confirmed RUC should rebook into F or put you into standby for first available seat. A complimentary upgrade does not.

I selected my RUCs in December 2018 so they are coming up to expiry.

He's referring to your statement that "At this time of year people are trying to use up their soon-to-be-expired GUCs and RUCs." Just because you selected your RUCs in Dec, doesn't mean everyone else has to. UCs shouldn't really be too bunched up at the end of the year.

I think waiting until January to select RUCs is a pretty common habit for a lot of folks.

Standby for F seat, which takes priority over Upgrades when done correctly.

I'm in a aisle Comfort seat just behind the F curtain and a now sold out flight Tomorrow. Can I board early and hold out a sign indicating I will swap seats for $100 as the cattle class boards?

When I was DM in 2018, I was #11 out of 71 for 0 UG seats on an FLL-ATL segment on a Thursday afternoon in October.

until recently (this year?) you had to select all choice benefits at the same time, and a lot of people who aren't habitual FT readers pick them as soon as they qualify.

MM, Reserve, and fulfilled DM requirements don't mean much in this situation. You skipped over the most relevant factor - fare class - which makes me guess you've got a V or an X fare.

This. And you can indeed be confirmed in a coach seat (to make sure you get on the flight no matter what) and then your FC standby puts you at the top of that list.

+1, combined with the Monday morning bit.

I try to avoid flying on Mondays when I can (less b/c of upgrades, more b/c I don't want to start my week that way) - but when I do, I'm usually on an M or H fare because of how late those trips get planned. Even then I can end up a few spots down on the UG list.

It has been clear for several years now that upgrades are no longer the primary benefit of medallion status at any level.

Delta is selling F tickets for decent prices, and this is a win for most customers because we are given the option of sitting in F. When domestic F used to be $2K+ for an advanced purchase mid-con flight, it was not really an option for most people (because it was such a waste of money), and some people got lucky with upgrades sometimes.

WFBF used to be an annoying and unhelpful comment, IMO. Now it's actually true.

That said, life was so much easier when mid-con F was $2k+ and transcon F/J was $3k+ -- you didn't even have to think as buying F was not an option. So you just hoped you were high enough on the priority to get the upgrade (or used FT tricks like calling in at midnight when the windows opened before the process became fully automated and locked down).

Now I have to run the equation of do I pay for F or chance the upgrade? Especially if I'm flying, say, mid-day on a Tuesday when the chances of an upgrade should be higher. Decisions, decisions. Life is so hard now!

Presuming that's talking about a round-trip price, that's what I was used to paying over at VX. Yes, I'd play some games (DCA-DAL-LAX-SEA was a favorite move since I'd get three meals timed out roughly with three "normal" meals) but I generally considered a "reasonable" price for a one-way nonstop at that point to be about $1100. This was 5-6 years ago, mind you, not the 1980s...

If you're talking one-way prices, then given the current coach situation I simply wouldn't have started flying. The trip to Salt Lake City (in about 2014) where a railroad meltdown effectively forced me to fly would have been a one-off, and I might well have just flown to Chicago to avoid getting "stuck" with a misconnect or planned on a possible CHI-DEN flight as a fallback and left it at that.

^ to M-fare!