500 mile upgrades:how do they work?
 

I have 49 upgrades.How are they used?What can I do with them?

1. Each point is worth 500 miles in upgrades during a domestic flight. You must have enough points to cover an entire flight. Hence, if your flight is 501 miles, Delta requires 2 points to upgrade it.

2. Each flight has a limited number of "upgradable" seats. If you purchase a ticket for a fare higher than L, U, or T, you can ask for one of these seats when you book -- IF you are Platinum. If you are Gold, you can ask 72 hours before the flight. If you are Silver, 24 hours.

If there are upgradable seats available, you will be confirmed at that time.

3. If you buy an L, U, or T ticket, you can ask 24 hours before the flight if you are Platinum. Gold and Silver can ask 12 hours in advance. Again, you will only be upgraded at this time if there are upgradable seats available.

4. If there are no such seats, you will be put on a waiting list and can hope that other FC seats will go unsold. In that case, they will become available immediately before the flight. Platinums will get priority, followed by Gold and then Silver. Within a category, priority will be determined by the fare class.

5. Real life: There are very few seats which become available at the last minute. Even Platinums find it hard to get a seat from the waiting list. Gold MIGHT make it. Silver has the same chance as that proverbial snowball in Satan's realm.

I am Gold and the only times I have been upgraded were when Delta did it for operational reasons (they were sold out in Economy and moved me to BE on an international flight -- no points charged) or when my seat was reserved in advance as part of an international itinerary. (I paid 20,000 miles to get an AMS-ATL-FLL upgraded. On the way back, I paid the same 20,000, asked for my seat a week in advance, but the FLL-ATL segment had no upgradable seats left. I was put on the waiting list. One waiting list seat opened and, even though my miles had already been paid, it was given to a Platinum.



[This message has been edited by Dovster (edited 09-01-2003).]

Interesting twist. My wife was Gold, I was Plat, but now I am SM. She is nothing...just another customer.

On a recent flight I was able to snag an upgrade at the 12 hour mark. At the gate I was able to get her an upgrade. I gave a story about how her Silver was messed up or something. I thought they would just do a gate comp, but they actually took a segment from her balance. Can non elites used their segments?

I believe if a non-elite has leftover upgrade points, they can be used on an "as available" basis, at the gate, after all elites requesting upgrades have been cleared.

This is true. I lost my SM status this year because last year was an almost no travel year for me. I had 21 upgrade points leftover. This year has been an increase in travel for me and I've been able to use my points 95% of the time to upgrade to FC; other than the CRJs, I've had the backseat only once on one segment out of 4 round-trips.

MARTINO,
After reading many posts on upgrading ability and my own personal experiences through the last few years, my opinion is that it really depends on where you fly out of that plays the big part in the success rate for upgrades. If you're coming out of a hub to a popular destination then your chances are lower. If you can fly out of a smaller regional airport (that doesn't only have CRJs but mainline DL metal) then your success rate will be higher.

Good luck!

My husband has quite a few of these from AF flights this year and no possibility of using them as he does not fly domestically. Can these be converted to miles, as can my unused upgrades on US Airways?

I am Silver Medallion. On Thursday(8/28/03) I was flying, T class, from LGA to CVG to LAS (my LGA flight departed at 1:10 pm); at 2:30 am I could have upgraded both segments, but chose only the longer CVG to LAS(using 500 mile segments.) On the return trip, Monday 9/1/03, (same routing) I could again have upgraded the entire trip, but again chose only LAS to CVG (I upgraded at 11:31 am, my flight left LAS at 11:30 pm.)
PS: There were a few FC seats unoccupied on LAS to CVG!

As far as I know, it's "use 'em or lose 'em".

Since I anticipate losing my FO status next year, I asked Delta about my unused 500 mile segments. Their reply was "If you are no longer a Medallion you may use your 500 Mile Upgrade points on a stand-by basis. Your name may be placed on the stand-by list at the departure gate on the day of travel.

We appreciate your interest in Delta Air Lines."

I don't know if it's worth "hanging on" and doing one more Delta trip next year to try and use up the upgrades (fingers crossed) or to take the loss and move on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif




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are they assignable?

No.

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Vasant