whynotniwot

I just found out that I have to be in Chicago on May 23rd. I am flying back from LGW to ATL on the 22nd. That flight is booked BE. From a practical standpoint, I might as well just stay at the airport and go on to Chicago. Do I have a chance of getting an upgrade? I have heard that the ATL-ORD flights are packed. Will this be a waste of money? I will be in Helsinki the day before and won't have an opportunity to upgrade as soon as the 24 hour window opens up. My first chance will be when I get to LGW on the day of the trip. Will my original BE status that day help?

Thanks in advance.

NoStressHere

It was not totally clear of your situation, but ....

Why not change your original ticket to END in Chicago. The cost might be about the same to have Chicago as the final destination vs. Atlanta. And therefore, it is a BE/1st ticket vs. an upgrade.

Of course, if you then need to get from Chicago to ATL, you would have to buy a one way ticket. Still might be price effective.

As to being unable to call at the 24 hour window, have someone do it for you. But to be honest, chances are slim there will be any seats left, or room on the waitlist.

whynotniwot

Thanks NoSTress.

Clarification. I had used mileage to upgrade from the ATL-LGW RT portion of my trip. I hadn't thought of seeing if I can extend that to ORD. I will check.

EchoVictor

What are the odds of succesfully using segment upgrades for CVG-DEN on Jan 17 at 12:35PM and also for DEN-ATL on Jan 22 at 12:55PM? I currently have two NAMUs (for which there is current availability) but would rather use MSU's because I have a surplus of them. (Too much international and LUser flying.)

If I had remained a silver, I would have definitely gone ahead and booked the upgrades with the NAMUs, but I am thinking I'll perhaps take my chances with the 800 mile MSUs now that I made gold.

Thanks for all of your help in advance. This board is the best.

-EV

andymo99

Your first leg is mid-day on a Thursday, pre-holiday weekend. At delta.com, both classes seem to have plenty of capacity. Flight is 1069 miles, 2:57 in length.

Your second leg is mid-day on a Tueday, post-holiday weekend. First is open, and coach has decent availability (though all for 'preferred'). Flight is 1199 miles, 2:47 in length.

If I were you, I would hold the NAMUs and gamble that the upgrades would be there 72 hours out. For a transcon or a red-eye or a flight with BE, I would say you should burn the NAMU. Of course, if you never take a companion, the NAMU has no extra value unless you use it beyond 72 hours!

GG

My advice is to watch the F cabins on line at Delta. We've had very good luck generally, upgrading as GMs with 800MSUs, but if you see the flights getting tight, you could grab a seat with a NAMU.

We just upgraded our trip this coming Friday-Monday with NAMUs, as some of the segments were tight, and we've also locked in F seats on our trip to SNA the following week. Both trips were looking tight on some segments (open F seats down to 4 or 5), and well, it seemed like a reasonable way to use the NAMUs. We'll each earn another set shortly, and aren't really sure what we'll do with them, since we should hit PM about the same time.

We found GM was a lot more valuable than SM - congrats and hope your experience is as good as ours has been. I'm sure we'd not have bothered to try to make PM if we hadn't been pretty happy with the mid-level.

B747-437B

NAMU's are booked from G inventory and SMU's from V inventory on those flights.

You can go ahead and confirm yourself in G class right now, then call at your SMU upgrade window and check if V inventory is still available, UNBOOK your G class reservation and then re-confirm it in V class using SMUs.

You will need to find a co-operative agent to do this, but SMS are usually pretty helpful.

Erasmus

I've used this method for almost all segments I've ever upgraded as GM, and never had a problem. Just call SMS 72 hours out and ask to switch from G to V. Every agent I've talked to knows exactly what I'm doing, and have been happy to help. Never run into a flight where V wasn't available--including some where I knew the cabin was full and I was just swapping fare classes on my seat!

EchoVictor

Thanks to everyone for the information. I will book the upgrade with the NAMU and then try to swap it at the 72 hour mark. Hopefully all will go well!

-EV

GG

I'm glad to hear from B747 and Erasmus that switching from NAMUs to MSUs is still considered OK. From other topics here, I had gathered that some agents were being very sticky about this. Or perhaps is that just if you try to switch from G to V at the gate?

jabez

I just switched from my Namu to MSU's at the gate. I am currently waitlisted for both G and V inventory on my return flight.If all that is available is waitlist,I waitlist in both.

biometrist

I think the problem arises when you don't have the NAMU to back up your reservation in G (or SWU in the old days). I'm not sure whether DL tracks the number of NAMUs you have when you book yourself/companion in G class. I know it's possible to confirm a reservation in V without the requisite nubmer of SMUs (if you were intending to buy some at the gate, for example). I, for one, have confirmed reservations using NAMUs that I earned, but which hadn't arrived in the mail yet (but were expected to long before the flight).

B747-437B

You can no longer do this at the gate. There is an inhibitor in place to prevent direct booking into V class within 3 hrs of flight time, so you would go onto the standby list for the flight along with everyone else.

However, this is a PERFECTLY LEGAL TRANSACTION and Deltamatic actually has a shortcut command that allows them to do it. Refer them to GRS reference G*9721/10-32 in case they claim not to know how.

B747-437B

Yes, Delta does track these. They post to your account on the weekend following earnings and are mailed in paper format the following week.

Spiff

From personal experience, I have had no problems upgrading either of these flights as an FO or a GM.

On the CVG-DEN and the ATL-DEN legs, you have a 757 secheduled and it has 24 F seats. You should be just fine.