delta upgrades
 

HI first, can you get upgraded on an award ticket if you are a gold member and there is availability? If there is a fee, what would it be? by the way, we have a ton of 500 segment upgrades
Also, do you recommend the delta amex card?

Hmmm, IMO, No, N/A and No

I'm almost certain that you can't get upgraded off of an award ticket.

IMO, if you are going to be flying DAL quite a bit and put a lot of stuff on credit cards anyway, then the AXP Sky Miles Platinum card is worth it and a way to rack up miles quickly. If you spend more than $25,000 a year on the card (which is pretty easy to do) you also get 10,000 MQMs. (The 25k is based on your anniversary date and not the calendar year). The annual fee isn't cheap--I think $135 (or $80 if you have another AXP card). I put basically everything in life that I can on this card (and then pay it off in full each month). I rack up tons of miles that way plus the 10,000 MQMs. If you are just going to use the card a little bit or start running up credit card debt and incurring finance charges, then it is definitely NOT worth it.

[This message has been edited by atl runner (edited Feb 12, 2004).]

I have first-hand experience of being upgraded on an award ticket, and I remember a thread awhile back in which an number of others (Plats. mostly) indicated they had been upgraded too.
I seem to recall that people think this is not an "official" policy, but it seems to happen with some frequency. In my case, I didn't even asked to be upgraded--they did it for me and my wife at the gate (both of us on award tickets). Good luck.

Yup.. happened to me on a short MD88 hop to ATL within the Southeast US. Didn't ask, and was upgraded on an "E" award ticket.. maybe Simply Good Business (SGB) does triumph sometimes..

rhetor, was this an operational upgrade and you were selected because of your Medallion status?

I'm glad I was "almost certain" and not "certain" as I wouldn't like putting incorrect info into the system. Also, it's nice to know that DAL will do that for, at least, its elite flyers. Thanks rhetor and heckler!

I assume it was because I am a PM (again, I didn't ask for it). Incidentally, Mrs. Rhetor, who is an FO was also upgraded presumably on the basis of her association with me (I've always tried to convince her that being with me had some benefits, but I never even believed it myself until then!)

"can you get upgraded on an award ticket if you are a gold member and there is availability?"

You can often get upgraded if:

- The flight is oversold and there is room in first. They will sometimes bump frequent fliers up to "first." I'm not sure if this is because one is Medallion or not.

Once, traveling with non-status wife and daughter LAX-JFK, both of them on Y award tkts. I was on, at that time, a non-upgradeable L fare. Flight was full in the back. They called me to the podium presumably based on my PM status and asked for my boarding pass to do an op-upgrade. I said that I was traveling with my family and declined the upgrade. Agent asked for their boarding passes as well and all three of us were given seat assignments in B/E. So, it does happen but one should not expect it.