Upgrade Question
 

Does any one use expert flyer and would be willing to tell me how many ( I believe its V inventory for the comp upgrades) are available on Friday 9/18 from phx-jfk flight 1685. I look on the seat map online and most of first is empty but no one seems to be being upgraded. Thanks in advance!

EF doesn't show any "V" inventory available on the award/upgrade side, if that's what you're looking for. However, on the revenue side, EF shows: C9 D9 S9 I9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 K9 L9 U9 T9, which means that the front cabin is pretty open (for now). You might clear later this week or at the gate if they don't sell for $ or fill F up with Golds and Platinums between now and Friday morning.

Thank you! I wonder why there would be no V if the front is wide open?

Because it's only Monday, and the flight is scheduled for Friday. Delta is hoping to sell the seats in first instead of giving them away.

At some point they will release unsold seats in first, if they still have them, and the "V" inventory will become available for upgrade. But this might not happen until the day of the flight.

Exactly. I'm a GM and I've been on low-occupancy flights with 15 open seats in the front cabin (out of 16 total) as late as one day before departure--and still not had the upgrade clear until I arrived at the departure gate. Of course, the gate agent was standing there with literally 15 new boarding passes of Elite-level travelers who had finally been upgraded. Revenue/yield management is a tricky thing to model.

I should make one correction, upon a second look. The flight you're on is selling the front cabin as Business Class rather than First Class.

Thus, the booking class that you'd be looking for for your upgrade is "X", rather than "V". X is for domestic Business upgrades, V is for domestic First upgrades. But X stills shows as zero on your flight. Thus, you'll just have to wait it out and maybe even have to play the gate upgrade lottery game, which is great fun!