News and notes from around the interweb:
- Delta fails to run upgrades more than anyone else. But no matter what Delta has been trying to Jedi mind trick its elites for 10 elites, extra legroom coach is not an “upgrade.”
Flying IAD to SEA today, I booked this a few weeks ago. All of the Comfort+ was blocked when I went to self upgrade after booking and has remained like that leading up to the trip, and now that I’m on the plane, more than half of the C+ seats are empty. What gives? The photo is after doors are closed.
I know Delta is trying to reduce the number of free upgrades but this is egregious
Over 20 comfort+ seats open and couldn’t self upgrade as a diamond
byu/goodsuns17 indelta - What’s happening in Vegas is.. complicated. It isn’t empty and it isn’t broke, though visitor numbers are down sharply. It’s richer, more extractive, more corporatized, and less magical for the budget gambler and the family traveler. The “spiritual rot” is that the city still sells the fantasy of cheap, reckless fun, but increasingly delivers expensive, tight, and fee-ridden entertainment.
- Airport therapy animals are way better for making travel better than Sean Duffy’s dress codes (HT: Paul H)
- Private jets of Africa’s billionaires
- Very localized turbulence.
bro was not falling for that pic.twitter.com/UpZzrBIeni
— The Internet Fish (@TheInternetFish) December 7, 2025
- Boycotting companies that do business in Israel while.. flying British Airways. BA serves Tel Aviv, and the British Mandate for Palestine led to the creation of Israel (and offer of a Palestinian state, which was rejected). Can’t make this up.
Coke’s local operator, by the way, employs Palestinians and pays taxes to the Palestinian Authority. By the way, Israelis should probably boycott Pepsi because for decades they refused to sell in Israel in order to gain market access in Arab countries. (By the way, Palestinian Airlines shut down five years ago.)
A Palestinian activist refused Coca-Cola during his British Airways flight, asking for a local drink instead as a protest against companies complicit in Gaza's genocide pic.twitter.com/XLvkMJwf8o
— Ounka (@OunkaOnX) December 8, 2025
- Each passenger is allowed a carrion, natch.
A pigeon caused mid-cabin chaos aboard a Bengaluru–Vadodara IndiGo flight on December 2 after it entered the aircraft moments before take-off. Viral videos show the bird flying over passengers’ heads as crew members attempted to guide it out, adding to the airline’s ongoing… pic.twitter.com/0lyHskVcsZ
— Mid Day (@mid_day) December 8, 2025
I got the seat upgrade to comfort+ as soon as I booked the flight. Not sure what he’s talking about.
Lotta spicy contents here, Gary. Agreed, the Delta ‘Jedi mind trick’ is absurd. Shame.
@Tim Dunn. Boo. Hiss.
Tried to fly from DEN to ATL yesterday. Was stuck in airport for 11 hours. Called diamond desk and it was a 3 hour wait even for Diamond. Then had to get hotel, uber and food , all on my dime. The new flight today was 2 hours late. So much for Premium or treating Million Milers and Diamonds well. I literally don’t think delta cares about its elites anymore. Why chase Diamond? So hard to get and you get like nothing. I asked for coffee today and FA said it’s cold and we can’t make more just for you. Real premium. Ed, where are you ???
I saw the DL bit on Reddit.
This? This is how Delta is going to start getting into fights with self-upgraders. If you’re willing to gamble on bin space and you know C+ is mostly empty, “board last and just sit down in a seat you know should be empty” might become a viable strategy for folks, and I genuinely pity the FAs who get stuck having to try to explain why the section is supposed to be empty when a bunch of Diamonds/Platinums aren’t getting upgraded.
Holding out for last-minute $ sales for upgrades while getting the plane out on time is more valued by Delta than maximizing the distribution of complimentary upgrades to long-time elite status passengers.
Ironically, I have more complimentary upgrades than ever, but it’s usually to or from a spoke on a Barbie jet at times of the day when business travel is much lighter than usual and the rest of the travelers are frugal enough that they don’t want to pay $ for short-haul upgrades.
Jeff,
you do realize that ATL was deicing this weekend which is a death sentence to operational reliability for southern hubs including CLT and DFW which do have to deice?
I have never seen a comfort plus section that had rows completely blocked when coach was full.
As has been noted multiple times, Gary takes some random incident and turns it into hard and fast “rules”.
I think you’re looking at the Delta behavior sideways. It’s not upgrades that Delta loathes but their elite members. Maybe they learned that from Marriott.
Big talk from this Tim person
95% certain the Delta C+ situation was an IT bug. If he’d called in he would have gotten the seat.
Source: Diamond for the past 8 years and I’ve had this bug once or twice.
American hates its elites too. Probably more than Delta and United combined.
@Nathan that’s more likely.
I haven’t had many flights recently that aren’t fully sold out, but even when they aren’t I haven’t seen comfort+ not being full.
On the few occasions like a Saturday morning MSP – STL flight this summer, I ended up getting upgraded to C+ as a mere gold.
What people do not know nor understand is that the aircraft can be “payload optimized”. The aircraft must be within weight and balance for the takeoff, cruise and descent. Unlike a straight wing aircraft, the swept wing CG will shift dramatically during cruise. Depending on the aircraft, the cargo, which includes luggage and other items is sometimes loaded into the aluminum “cans” that one sees being loaded into the baggage compartments. On some aircraft the “cans” can only be loaded into the front cargo compartment. Thus, the aircraft is already nose heavy. Therefore, passengers who have purchased a first class seat will be accommodated because the dispatchers know the adjusted weight of passengers. Therefore the cargo can weight was adjusted BEFORE loading aboard the aircraft. It cannot be adjusted after it is sealed, and the weight and balance has been calculated. Cargo is also a “paid seat” (if you will) and some is “must fly”. Yes, it is inconvenient and causes anger but the math doesn’t lie. Because this is a long haul flight, I can only assume that some of the cargo is destined for an overseas flight since Seattle is a hub.
I agree that the C+ issue must have been a bug.
As for Pepsi, I did boycott them when they weren’t selling to Israel, but when they started again, I started buying again. I reward good behavior and try not to continue to punish bad behavior that has been fixed.
Used to have Diamond year after year. I left Delta after they started massive devaluation of miles while moving to a fare based earning structure vs miles. It was obvious the only way they could only keep growing profit would be to cut perks next. Their mileage program is now garbage and the prices exorbitant. I get much better reward structure now with Companion on Southwest.
@Former Delta Diamond — I feel you. Didn’t push for it this year, though I could have. Preferred to reach at least entry-level on the big-3, but let DL slide for 2026 back to Platinum, and AA Platinum Pro for the OW Emerald, United Gold for Star Alliance Gold (and because I’m tired of PlusPoints). If Companion Pass on SWA works well for you and yours, then that’s awesome. You may really need those benefits now that WN’s starting to charge for everything (seats, bags, etc.)
Delta was once special but race to the bottom in pursuit of profit never excuses a competitor for long.