JakeRobertson212

I've spent the past hour on the phone with first the DM line, then was transferred to a very terse and rude Customer Experience Supervisor, then to GTS and then finally back on with a different CES.

The question I have that none of them can answer is; I have a reservation in about 3.5 weeks and have been waitlisted on the outbound using a RUC. I've had this ticket booked for over a month and whenever I went into the Delta app or logged into dl.com and looked at the trip I could see all the F seats left unassigned and what the buy-up offer was. Yesterday, all the seats in F were greyed out and the buy-up offer was gone. Two weeks ago this exact same scenario happened on the return segment of this trip and when this has happened I called the DM line who confirmed the waitlist had cleared and the ticket needs to be reissued. All the agents I've spoken with this morning have all said I'm still waitlisted and there's no OY upgrade space. When I ask why all of a sudden have all F seats been greyed out and there's no more buy-up offer I get a litany of excuses from:

1). There's no more buy-up offer on this flight
2). Your ticket was manually reissued two weeks ago and when that happens all buy-up offers go away because any changes now have to be manually done moving forward

So I went and made a separate booking for the exact same flight this morning and what do you know - the exact same buy-up offer appears that I had originally seen for weeks. So I'm looking to all the knowledgeable folks here for any talk tracks to say or tips on what department I should ask to speak to that could do a deeper dive give me a straight answer as to what's going on. Because at this point if I haven't been upgraded then I'm concerned something screwy is going on...

xliioper

I frequently see the buy-up offers go away when a flight gets down to J3 or J4. Doesn't seem particularly suspicious to withhold some inventory from buy-up's. What is the inventory in the FC buckets?

JakeRobertson212

Inventory is J9.

When I purchased the exact same ticket and flight this morning in Y the buy-up offer is there, and it was the same price as the buy-up offer I'd been seeing for the past month in the reservation I have where I'm waitlisted. So it's not a matter of taking away the buy-up offer or it disappearing.

WillBarrett_68

buy-up offers have zero connection to RUC OY inventory.

xliioper

Do you have the comp upgrade box selected? Seems there can be issues when both waitlisted for a RUC and having comp upgrade box still selected.

JakeRobertson212

I'm not sure that's 100% accurate, but isn't what I'm asking or suggesting.

What I'm trying to understand is that if I didn't get upgraded, why would my reservation that's waitlisted and has shown all the available seats in F with a buy-up until yesterday now all of a sudden be completely greyed out and no buy-up. Yet when I made a separate Y reservation (even ticketed it) this morning now all the same F seats show and I'm getting the exact same buy-up offer $350.88 that I used to see in my waitlisted reservation? Nobody at DL can answer that....

JakeRobertson212

I do. Is the suggestion then to uncheck the "request upgrade to First class" box? I've already been upgraded to C+ which happened at time of booking.

Tedgrrrr

i had a DM rep this morning who claimed I couldn't do a same day change from C+ to C+ tomorrow because I booked in "V" or some nonsense. I thanked her for her time, went on Facebook and chatted with a much more knowledgeable rep who helped me right away. - have you tried that?

WillBarrett_68

The buy-up offers come and go on their own. There have been plenty of times I've seen them disappear then reappear whether I have a certificate waitlisted or not. And those offers will disappear even if there is inventory to sell. No connection at all.

JakeRobertson212

Okay, I understand that. What I'm not understanding is how I can now have two separate Y tickets for the exact same flights, one of which now is greying out all of F and not showing a buy-up and the other which shows all of F and a the same buy-up I had previously.

JakeRobertson212

I've never used Facebook to correspond with DL. I assume it's similar to Twitter and you just direct message them via Facebook messenger?

TTT

You can also try the online chat function at Delta.com.

MSPeconomist

What's the fare difference? You can always call DL and upfare to FC (with no change fee), but often the FCM offers are cheaper.

JakeRobertson212

Not really wanting to upfare and pay more as I want to use this RUC that's going to expire the end of next month.

Zorak

The seat map is frequently greyed out (well, previously, no idea if it's still grey after the latest palette change)/blocked on an existing booking for cabins other than the one you're ticketed in.

This first happening routinely in 2017:

Another Negative Change by Delta: Blocking Seat Maps for Other Cabins

although as you've seen if there's a buy up offer then they show you what's available. But it can come and go randomly.

In short, to paraphrase the saying, don't ascribe to malice that which can be attributed to poor/random IT behavior. It's not a nefarious plot.

(And BTW a more reliable indicator of a waitlisted certificate clearing is if you had the duplicate segment previously and then the whole segment disappears)