koreanair720

Flew this morning BOS-DCA. I was tippity top of the upgrade list; did not clear. Ultimately, we pushed back with THREE empty seats in F, and me in comfort plus. I wrote a polite but firm complaint, and received the response copied below.

Is this worth escalating...and if so, any recommendations on how?

Thank you so much for reaching out to us regarding your recent travel from BOS to DCA on February 13,2024 DL5674.

I completely understand your frustrations concerning your complimentary upgrade. Upgrades are a great benefit and I’m sorry you were not upgraded this time. Our website explains the benefits of your Medallion status in great detail and it is there that you will find our guidelines for Complimentary Upgrades for you and your companions.

Complimentary upgrades are not guaranteed. I cannot verify why you weren't upgraded. I'm sorry you felt inconvenienced. I will be forwarding your concerns to our Airport Customer Service Leadership team for internal review.

Ethan, thank you for being a valued Platinum Medallion and Delta SkyMiles Platinum American Express Card holder. Your feedback is essential for our continuous improvement. Delta is committed to keeping our passengers happy and to be the airline that our passengers trust. Our goal is to make every effort to resolve an issue when a situation like this occurs.

On behalf of Delta, thank you for flying with us and for your continued loyalty. We look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon.

Regards,

Xage L.
Customer Care Supervisor
Delta Air Lines

sneaktip99

I received a similar response to a different complaint. It seems they are just using AI to respond to complaints at this point. I've never heard of the name "Xage" before
Emails to executive team addresses go unanswered these days, and comments through the website are answered by AI.

sydneyracquelle

My canned AI response insisted that I give them a 5 on the survey I received the next day.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

I have been on at least one flight that went out with empty seats in FC while I was on the UG list and would have cleared. I could have asked but decided to see how it would play out as I wanted to observe and understand why the GA did not clear the UG list. In this case there was no obvious reason. I sent in a complaint with my observations with the comment that the GA just did not do their job.

As such, what did you observe? Did you say anything??

tennessetom

I am surprised this happened in Boston they are usually on top of upgrades, most of the agents have been there a long time and actually care the weather was bad in some areas outside of the city so there might have been a few last minute no shows that were checked in and even though the weather in Boston wasn’t an issue all the talk of snow might have had them off their game as their were a number of cancellations

you really aren’t owed anything for not getting an upgrade push and push you might get a few miles but I am not sure it is worth the effort

RealHJ

Sounds almost like the Vin Diesel character from this movie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXX:_R...of_Xander_Cage

X. Cage, abbreviated as Xage.

That's probably where their random name generator algo got it from, by scanning movie character names and changing it slightly.

Firstboss

In any follow-up complaint it is worth asking why wasn’t anyone upgraded to the 3 empty FC seats.
This is to avoid triggering AI into referring to the terms that influence your priority.

I would also propose a solution in the complaint: if there are no shows to the assigned seats, the crew should have a short list of passengers eligible for upgrade to do it manually after the boarding is closed.

Of course, question from 1 or 2 customers will generate general replies and maybe some consolation miles. If more of us point at the same problem and solution the chances are higher that it becomes a business case for Delta to implement the process improvement.

The Situation

While most of the time "you board you lose" is a thing of the past, this still happens from time to time. This is why if I am at the top or even close to the top, I always ask the GA if they will come on board to move me up if there are no-shows or wait and board last. You should have received a few miles for this, even on a short hop like this - I would have expected 5,000 miles for this.

audidudi

I don’t even see DL5674 flying from BOS->DCA yesterday…according to FR24 it was cancelled!

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/dl5674

TomMM

stevendorechester

That is just wrong!

Although I don' t usually go after upgrades as I prefer to pay for the class of service I travel in airlines should not be publishing a benefit they don't intend to honor.

Just to simply keep the seats empty is completely wrong, unless there is a compelling reason such as a missing flight attendant limiting the number of passengers that can be accomodated up front. Still I'm pretty sure if a pilot or any employee for that matter showed up with a Y ticket the gate agent would find a way to upgrade them but not a paying customer.

Why it happened in this case who knows; could be a legitimate reason or could be that airline employees were travelling upfront and the agent wanted to keep the seats next to those employees empty.

koreanair720

correct, that was the 6am I was originally booked on. This happened on the 730.

I guess this may have been a result of being rebooked on a new flight but I was on the upgrade list so still don’t understand what gives…

StayingHomeIsBetter

First responses are always computer generated.

A follow-up complaint is required to get a real person involved.

DLASflyer

So the "supervisor" is a computer?!

ctsgoblue

I find you never get what you want to hear from these exchanges. Not to theeadjack but I was in a comfort+ aisle seat and got an upgrade to first. Seat turned out to be broken…they moved me back to the back row middle seat. I called to complain and they told me not to complain bc it was a “complimentary upgrade”—I said I had a better seat to begin with! SMH…sometimes the ball bounces your way; sometimes it doesn’t.