Made it to PM
 

I just made PM for the first time, what can I expect to receive, how long before I do. Any insight on how to get those elusive overseas upgrades.

Thanks, DO

Overseas upgrades are extremely rare, and only occur if they are oversold in back and have space up front.

OTOH, I've gotten a number of upgrades on AF and AZ flights due to DL status; they are more flexible than DL.

I hit PM this year too. It took about five weeks for the package to arrive.

Get ready for many, many domestic upgrades!

Plan ahead and be flexible.

Here's something interesting that I discovered--DL folks can you comment? I have upgraded from an M or higher fare using miles (not certificates) to Europe five times this year. I have twice requested this upgrade about two days in advance. I have made six requests and the upgrade has cleared five times. Anyway, when I get to the podium, they often ask for a certificate--I have to explain that I am using miles. The question: is easier to get an upgrade if you call and say you'll use miles? Does a mileage upgrade come out of a different, bigger bucket? If so, can I then switch at the airport and use a certificate?

Congrat! I made Platinum yesterday too! Woohoo!

International upgrades with PMUs or miles both comes from Z inventory so it should be equal chances.

Yes you can switch between certificates and miles any time up to check-in. Certs may be easier for them to process than going to your SkyMiles account to deduct miles, etc. - my guess as to why they automatically ask for certs most of the time.

Gargoyle: Any further details on the upgrades with AF and AZ? Were they transcon or short haul. And what fare classes were you traveling on? I often end up spoking out with them from CDG or AMS when going into EU and would love any advice on scoring upgrades. FYI, I'm PM.

Thanks.

Transatlantic, on low fares (I almost always buy LUT). First one on AZ was when I was still FO, another when I was GM, once or twice on AF when I was GM and my wife was FO travelling with me, another on AF for both of us when I was PM and she was GM, etc...
just asked the GA nicely and got lucky...

It's possible some of these were full on back and needed to bump someone up front, but asking nicely certainly helped.

It's still rare. I do six or seven TATL r/ts a year, average one upgrade a year.

CONGRATULATIONS, to both of you for making PM. :D

Enjoy the status for the next year.

Actually, deducting miles for a Z upgrade is much easier for the GA than processing a PMU. And it must be far more common to upgrade with miles that PMUs because almost always, they assume that you are using miles to upgrade.

I just made PM yesterday (i.e. Friday). Or rather, I crossed the 75k threshold yesterday, but delta.com still shows me as GM. When will that change? Is it the case that if I call DL to remove my Skymiles number and re-enter it into an itinerary before delta.com shows my PM status, the itinerary will remain in GM status?

The updates happen Friday night. If you have over 75k MQM and your account still shows Gold then you will have to wait a few more days until the end of the month update happens.

Deleting your SM number and having it reentered will not have any affect. What you are thinking of, is if you have already started travel on an itinerary and your account is changed from one tier to another and you still have some legs left (i.e. return portion), then you can have the number removed and put back in to have your new status reflected on the current itinerary.

Your number of TATL flights and ratio of op-ups almost exactly matches my experiences as a PM.

It really depends on when you travel. Medallions' highest op-up opportunities always come around peak holiday periods. For example, flying TATL this coming weekend (Jan 4, Jan 5), or in Mid-Feb for Presidents' Day weekend, etc. Y is often overbooked like crazy and business travelers aren't flying then so there are plenty of BE seats to handle the Y overbookings.

My Experience with AF
 

Both times I was upgraded on AF, I had an "M" ticket. The flights took place in 2003.

The first time, I was traveling with my father who was in his early 80s, so I flew out to California to meet him, and we were booked on the AF nonstop SFO-CDG (holding DL tickets on this code-share), connecting onto BUD. We were on DL's "wait list", and didn't clear within 24 hours, and the concierge at the DL CRC in SFO refused to clear us on the flight. We went over to AF in the SFO international terminal, arriving there about 75 minutes before departure. A very nice lady working at the AF counter checked us in. I told her about our wait list status. She told us that there was a possibility that we would be upgraded, and to go down to the gate and wait for an announcement. As it turned out J was sold out, but there were 5 empty seats in F. She was as good as her word. 5 pax were upgraded to F, and, of the 5 seats in J suddenly vacated, my dad and I were the last 2 people called to the podium and given upgrades from Y to J. They processed the mileage deduction at the gate (I was GM at the time). This was the most special upgrade I've ever received in my life. My dad and I proceeded to have an incredible experience on AF--the food, drink and service were impeccable.

Later that year, I was on a mileage run in December to make PM, and I was able to get an open jaw M itinerary for less than $1200 that got me just over 75k--IAD-CVG-LGW on DL, and then a code-share on AF MAN-CDG-IAD. On the day of departure from IAD, I learned at the DL check-in counter that my upgrade CDG-IAD had cleared, which I paid for in miles.

Processing PMUs at the Airport
 

My wife and I used PMUs to upgrade on our BWI-JFK-FRA and CDG-ATL-BWI itinerary last year. The front counter employee at BWI who waited on us, Miriam, an excellent and efficient employee there, took 20 minutes to process the coupons, and this is not a knock on her--it took that long to get everything properly entered on her computer system, including two telephone calls to DL computer staff. That struck me as bizarre, as our reservation had been changed the moment the DL SMS reservationist confirmed over the phone that the upgrade was successful and was entered into the system, and we were given seat assignments in the premium cabins (BWI-JFK was a DHC-8 and was not an upgrade flight).

DL either needs to automate these coupons or have a much simpler procedure for their front counter employees.

We're using PMUs next Friday, and our originating flight at BWI leaves at 0600. This means we are going to have to get into the airport at 0430 to make sure that we get our coupons processed in order to make the flight.