News and notes from around the interweb:
- Wow, $19 is the cheapest I’ve ever seen Delta (or any U.S. airline) offer an upgrade. A checked bag fee is twice as much, so if you check a bag you’re saving money. When they’re willing to sell upgrades that cheap, you can see why elites on Delta no longer get upgraded. According to the airline’s own data, they went from giving out more than half their first class seats a decade ago to now just about 12-13%.
I paid $19 on two occasions recently for 1st upgrade IND to DTW. Was Diamond last year, and Platinum this year. Don't yet see any difference with upgrades.
— steveo'no (@SteveM112) January 25, 2026
- Apparently.
Apparently they don’t clean planes anymore @AmericanAir pic.twitter.com/MrseePC8ic
— Sayjul18 (@sayjul18) January 24, 2026
- United is not, actually, that much more premium than American. They’ve just better than they used to be and grew their network in major cities.
Just paid for FIRST CLASS on @United and spent the entire flight sitting in someone else’s wet vomit. Crew knew. Did nothing.
This is what $3,000$ bought me. Still waiting for my refund and miles.
Unacceptable. Unsanitary. Unsafe. @UnitedAirlines why??? Flight number 2397 pic.twitter.com/3MrEhg28td— hannah bender (@hannahbend87688) January 24, 2026
How the mighty have fallen
byu/GibberingSloth inunitedairlines - Insane.
Ordered a pizza and now I’m being asked to tip the driver AND the people who made it separately
On a $25 order.
Bro I just wanted dinner not a guilt-powered funding round for everyone in the supply chain
— Ben Pouladian (@benitoz) January 25, 2026
- Ceiling collapses at the Embassy Suites in Norman, Oklahoma. I was once in the restaurant of the Westin City Center in DC, back when it was a Wyndham and something similar happened. That’s the old Vista hotel made famous by Marion Barry.
@itsmichelle1982 #fyp #embassysuites #disaster #Oklahoma #pipebusted ♬ original sound – itsmichelle1982 - The American Airlines free wifi rollout is largely complete.
Be ungovernable pic.twitter.com/WzKKu7HNFG
— Darth Powell (@VladTheInflator) January 25, 2026
I am surprised that there has not been class-action litigation challenging the marketing and administration of complimentary elite status upgrades. There appears to be a plausible, and potentially well-supported, argument that the representations made to consumers regarding such benefits could give rise to claims under state deceptive trade practices statutes.
Elite status members should be offered a discount on the first class upsell on a sliding percentage scale depending on your tier of the elite status program.
(Of course, they’re just as likely to charge elite status members more than non-status members because they know they’re marketing to folks that are engaged with their program.)
although I’m a diamond, I’d pay for it.
once again, this is a very short segment likely on a flight that had a pretty low load factor to begin with.
We have yet to see evidence that these kinds of fares are occurring in more than a few anecdotal markets.
Mike,
It’s all about the credit card. They are a well-run company that is profitable. This action is a follow-on to the Sky Pesos. Credit cards is the whip cream.
They found a lot of money in the seat cushions of their first-class cabins. And they thought, we are we not getting that money. Now they are.
Every successful business that I know of re-invents itself every so often. How can we grow our business and become more profitable?
If your upgrades came because of OPM, then the ride is over. One company’s success will lead to others doing the same thing. Face it, if they can sell a first class upgrade for $19, they don’t need you. What will you do? Go to another airline? They will all do the same things.
For the last six years I have become a free agent. And never looked back. I still have my United Lifetime Premier 1k card for entry in lounges around the world.
My first “frequent flyer” card was an Executive Traveler Card from Eastern. The only perk was free upgrades, which came fast and often. Then it was absorbed into CO. Upgrades still flowed like wine. And free trips in FC were frequent. (And in the 80’s it came with caviar as an appetizer.) Then it morphed into UA. Still got upgrades, just not as many. Free travel became less frequent. Got my Lifetime card and retired.
Now living in Europe, I use the card to go to some nice lounges. And I pay for my tickets. On any airline I choose. Feel great. No end of the year mileage runs.
Get used to it. In a few more years, no more frequent flyer programs.
Beating the I no longer get an upgrade drum isn’t going to change anything. Airlines are getting people to pay to be upfront. People forget that up until AA merged with USAir GLDs and PLTs had to apply stickers for an upgrade. Stickers could be earned, it was something like four, 500 mile upgrades for every 10K miles flown. In most cases stickers had to be purchased.
Airlines do not in any way guarantee complimentary upgrades. No more than a state lottery doesn’t guarantee you will win even though their advertising might seem to suggest otherwise.
IND/DTW is one really short flight.
This is a really short flight. Are they selling upgrades for long flights at bargain prices?
Does the cash infusion from the sale of first-class upgrades instead of offering complimentary Medallion upgrades supplement the Delta Air Lines C-suite retirement fund?
There are more downgrades, devaluations, and bait-and-switches on the way, too… just learned my go-to for RUC’s is basically dead. Used to be a sweet spot with two-class 763 on JFK-SFO, but they added PS, and now mostly GUC required, otherwise ‘no upgrade certificates available,’ even when it’s the 757 with lie-flat. Feels way more like SWUs or PlusPoints… I guess Tim snitched on us.
I can’t see the point of upgrading to First when even Coach is so darn premium on Delta.
@Tym — …not even the real one. -_-
The out of control, drive off the side of the cliff tipping culture in the US is truly out of control.
Restaurants in European countries (certainly Italy, and many more) roll on the floor laughing at our guilt ridden, tip shaming mindset.
Let the proprietor(s) pay a competitive living wage.
@ 1990 — The lack of RUC/GUC space tends to be worst at the end of January when everyone is trying to use them before expiration. If Delta wants to start making their certs useless, I will do exactly same as with AA and UA, stop being loyal-ish. Elite status Its all about discounted medium to long-haul J seats.
@ Tim — You are so full of it. You know that Delta doesn’t limit the programming for these upgrades ro short segments with low load factors. It is disgusting that Delta cannot provide the $19 upgrade for free on such a segment. Remember, this a benefit for spending lots of money with Delta. If they cant provide a $19 benefit a few times a year to someone who spends thousands with them, then they are basically lying when they advertise unlimited complimentary upgrades. Personally, I would prefer that they be honest and eliminate the benefit entirely.
Ironic that Ed B got in trouble last year for admitting the obvious: Delta has too many customers with status. No point giving away seats when lounges are overflowing with customers having status.
I cannot believe making making someone sit in somebody else’s puke is not National news story. You won’t pay me $1 million to sit on that seat.
I wonder what the options would be in that situation
@Gene — Ah, and here I was getting a head start on using my 2026 certificates (expiring next January); should probably wait until February.
After 12 + years as a Diamond, I dropped to Gold. Delta has imposed absurd spend requirements. This year, on international flights, we only flew Delta once. Far better to shop for price and schedule. Our SAS business class flight was wonderful and our Emirates flights to Asia were amazing. Delta One is not the premium product it claims to be. The flight attendants skipped my wife during meal service and when I went to one to explain my wife had not been served, they were rude about it. Now, they have tiers in First where you don’t get to choose your seat, really? Just booked another trip to Europe and, again, not on Delta. I’ll still fly them, but only when the schedule is best. No more passing up direct flights on other carriers to earn points on Delta when their itinerary has multiple legs.
United really is not a good airline these days. I just paid for first transatlantic, and was put in a center seat of economy. Which was bad enough, but I had to fight for weeks to get my legally mandated refund. Their initial offer was 75k United FF miles, which is not even close to worth the cash I paid.
It’s not merely that they did it, after stranding me in Newark for 24 hours. It’s how they handled it, which was appalling in every way.
They are barely better than American. Delta isn’t great, but their customer service is miles better.
@ Bbt — I call bs on the United puke story. I dont believe for one second thag United would expect someone to sit in this seat or that someone would do so. I am guessing the seat was out of service, someone took and photo and then complained on X just to get views. Apparently it worked.
Gene,
neither you or Gary has any proof that any upgrades were not cleared in order for DL to offer this fare.
and there is no evidence that this is widespread at these fare levels across their system – or that of AA or UA.
The trend is clear that airlines are monetizing upgrades over loyalty program upgrades but we have no idea from a true data perspective – not a bunch of anecdotes – how much it is affecting loyalty program upgrades or how much airlines including DL are making by monetizing upgrades.
You are clueless if you think this is only happening at DL. As with most things, DL figures out how to make money better than any other airline but other airlines do and will copy DL.