There are a lot of misconceptions about upgrades. People talk about dressing up, hoping to get bumped up. Or telling the gate agent that it’s your honeymoon. Sometimes they claim there’s even a secret passphrase.
For the most part, though, upgrades are based on a formula and handled by computer. American Airlines even automates much of their upgrade processing at the gate to a computer program called ‘AgentAssist.’ By reducing the amount of work the gate agent does, they’re able to staff gates with fewer agents and save money.
When computers handle the upgrades, there’s less opportunity for discretion, and as long as everyone is classified correctly on the list. But there are still plenty of cases where gate agents don’t follow the upgrade list.
For instance, frequently gate agents won’t bother to do upgrades at the very last minute at all. If a first class passenger doesn’t show up for the flight (maybe they are connecting, and their inbound aircraft is late or they get waylaid in the bathroom in the terminal) they would be doing the work to print a new boarding pass and come on board the aircraft to move up a coach passenger – right before they’re supposed to be closing the doors. And this extra work could wind up delaying the flight a minute or two, which would get them yelled at by a manager.
One Delta Air Lines gate agent actually admits to not following procedure with upgrades whenever two different situations come up.
- They won’t bother to check if passengers traveling together want to be split up. The agent says that when there’s one upgrade seat together, and two people on the reservation, they’ll just get skipped.
[S]ometimes if there’s one fc seat available and a party of two together both 1 and 2 on the upgrade list it can be annoying, especially if it’s several parties of two… rather than calling them up and seeing if they wanna split and have one take the seat and maybe they aren’t in the gate area… blahh.. i’ll move on to the next solo in line.
[R]ather than clearing them off the upgrade list i’ll change their seat assignment manually to the fc seat then delete them from the fc standby list so it won’t show on the app or monitors that they cleared the upgrade ahead of the groups. their boarding zone oddly doesn’t change when i do this
- They won’t ask if a customer wants to be moved from regular coach to extra legroom middle seats, giving those ‘Comfort+’ seats to employees instead.
i do not place mc passengers in middle seats in comf+ even if they are on the upgrade list, if they are in a window or isle seat in mc. those middle seats sometimes go to nonrev standbys on completely full flights
I’ve noticed that Delta is most likely to skip processing upgrade lists at the gate of the major airlines, and this agent with the airline admits to deviating from procedure, while protecting their anonymity. It’s a window that would be helpful to Delta in ensuring consistency, but I’ve flagged these issues for some time and it doesn’t seem to get fixed.
When US Airways took over American Airlines, legacy US Airways agents used to skip over passengers waiting for upgrades if they weren’t at the gate when upgrades were being done, which was strange because customers frequently didn’t even need new boarding passes handed out – their boarding passes would update automatically in the airline’s app. Eventually American fixed that training issue, and of course now much of the upgrade processing has been taken away from the agents themselves anyway. So there’s hope these things can be fixed.
Well the Delta agent just explained why seats magically disappear and my priority is still 1 or 2.
How hard can it be? Call up Mr and Mrs. Smith explain there’s only one seat do they want to split up, and they need to decide now. More and more at best there’s one seat open at the gate so if people really need to sit together they need to buy first or pay the cash upgrade fee.
Pfft non story when you consider there’s almost never two FC seat left for battlefield UG’s.
Delta has conditioned so many of their most loyal customers to now PAY for the most coveted medallion benefit that used to be FREE. And there’s no shortage of fools willing to cough up the extra $. Delta wins. Medallions lose
No problem w skipping the “upgrade” to a comfort+ middle seat. I’m now lifetime Platinum so get upgraded to Comfort+ at time of ticketing and can select an aisle seat but before I would specifically select to NOT take a Comfort+ middle seat. Not sure why anyone would give up an aisle for a middle even if there are a few extra inches of pitch
@AC – I haven’t flown DL in like 10 years, but if it’s anything like most airlines, pulling out my laptop in Y to work is a real PITA. Even an extra 2″ pitch in Y+ can be the difference between an uncomfortable struggle and getting stuff done. I’d take that middle on flights where I need to work.
They’ve added technology steadily like now you can opt to only take the Comfort+ upgrade if it’s a window or aisle. Why can’t they add an option to the app to opt to split a party for purposes of upgrade? Then the computer does it. And if the passenger doesn’t like it, well, why did you opt in?
Lazy union scum being lazy union scum.
Delta gate agents are not unionized.
Bad Delta. And they treat Sky Team elites just as bad. I am Gold with Air France and have been on DL flights with empty F or B seats because DL refuses to upgrade me and other alliance partner elites.
Not surprised…Alaska did this to my daughter and myself routinely in 2022…and we were both 100Ks. They were upgrading Golds over us.
I am more than happy to not lose my MC aisle or window seat for a middle C+ which is why I only have CU selected for window or aisle.
When I travel with my wife I always check in with the agent if we’re 1 and 2 on list and it looks like there’s availability.
Premium.
I would expect nothing less from a premium airline.
What is this Delta “upgrade” thing that you speak of?
“Not surprised…Alaska did this to my daughter and myself routinely in 2022…and we were both 100Ks. They were upgrading Golds over us.”
The 100k status was relatively new at the time. They’re not overlooking 100ks anymore.
Upgrades? Are they even still around?
Not surprising since Delta continues to brag that only 12% of seats in First are upgrades…to a very limited number of Diamonds, Ed and his BFF; not sure why anyone else is chasing elite status hoping for an upgrade. You have a better chance of winning the lottery…
Gary Leff writes, “Delta Gate Agent Confesses: ‘I Skip Couples for First Class Upgrades Because It’s Less Hassle.”
Delta passengers say, “I skipped flying on Delta Air Lines and hoping for a First-Class upgrade because it’s less hassle.”