Kind of an odd upgrade lottery at TPA
 

Was flying back TPA-ATL-HSV after Thanksgiving. I was originally booked with a 35 minute connection in ATL late in the day :td:, so I used SDC to move up to an earlier TPA-ATL flight. (I don't like short connections in ATL.)

Anyway, upgrades were showing available until right at the three hour mark. I guess that is when the flight goes to gate control. So when I called to SDC, I lost my upgrade and was put on the list.

At the gate, the cleared screen ended up showing 15 or 16 folks cleared into FC, including me. (I didn't get there in time to see the upgrade screen.) This number was very surprising, as any medallion who was on the flight at least prior to the 3 hour cutoff should have already cleared.

So I'm puzzled as to whether a whole bunch of medallions SDCed onto this flight, or whether most of them were NRs who were cleared into the open seats. If anybody has a clue, I'd be interested in knowing.

In any case, FC went out full. And my originally booked flight out of TPA was delayed, so once again I appreciate the power of SDC and of course that it is free for PMs. ^

David

Sounds like a combo of the other flight being delayed so people took the earlier flight and ended up on the gate list and that DL is holding back more and more upgrades until the gate (i.e. releasing less V inventory).

Well....

1) The delayed flight was scheduled two hours after the flight in question. But some folks could have moved up to the earlier flight with SDC as I did.

2) Upgrade inventory was available until 3 hours before departure. So all Medallions that had been booked on the flight prior to that should have had their upgrades cleared.

It does bring up a couple of questions for me regarding SDC, and I'll post them in that thread.

Thank you,
David

Its such a short flight..I dont understand why airlines dont just sell upgrades to the general public at the gate like Airtran does first then upgrade all others..they could make extra $$$..@:-)

I think it's about competition. If Delta did that, I would be gone really fast.

That's crazy talk.