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.
Wait – you mean Delta is still upgrading frequent fliers? My recent experience is I have to “buy up”.
That’s why after 20 years of earning Diamond status as of Jan 1 I am giving up on loyalty to Delta.
I stopped flying American Airlines. Cleveland is considered the basement of the country. They pull crew members from flights to Cleveland to handle flights going to other cities so that the flights to Cleveland are often delayed or canceled
US Airways didn’t take over American, American took over US Airways. And back then, there was no app. It was all paper boarding passes. Useless article.
I’m a disabled retired navy veteran in metro DC. When in the reserve I flew twice a month for two years to San Diego, then two years to San Antonio, then Chicago, then Fort Worth. I accumulated 900k miles, most of it in Platinum status. When approaching the gate, I’d first inquire if they needed volunteers to be bumped, i had always booked earliest flights for travel the day before I needed to be somewhere, so I could then accept the bump and see what the gate agent might offer as “bounty.” I imagine my willingness to be bumped was declaration of my supportive cooperation. If they didn’t need any volunteers, so be it. Then I’d inquire if there might still space available up front. …and if there was, I often got a seat there. If bumped, they’ try to place me up front on the flights ahead that day. Regardless the situation, I cooperative and compliant. Then one month I had to travel to San Juan for a month for my civil service job with the navy. All flights were suspended in August 2001 for active volcano matters. American called me ahead of time and promised me the first next flight from either of our three local airports. They sent a car to fetch me from the pentagon and flew me from Baltimore in short order. Loyalty works both ways. Kinda like a marriage. There are ups and downs, and your partner , you and your partner always look out for each other.
Delta gate agents do the best they can to get the flight out on time If that means skipping over upgrades then so be it. If I bought a seat I expect that is my seat , I don’t expect an upgrade. Also, Delta gate agents are not unionized and are paid very poorly! My daughter has been an agent with Delta for 5 yrs. The amount of crap these agents take is crazy. To anyone who complains, a word of advice, gate agents have the authority to tell a pass who causes any issues that your not flying today and believe me they won’t. Either you r a million miler or a basic flyer pick your seat and sit down. Stop expecting upgrades. Most of all stop giving gate agents grief. Without them your flights would not go out on time or you don’t fly anywhere. Sadly they are underpaid and are constantly yelled at by passengers. Upgrades were a day in the past just like PanAm. If you get one great. If you don’t you get the seat you paid for. Stop complaining life is too short!!!
@Sweeny –
1. The American Airlines app was first released on July 26, 2010.
2. US Airways and American Airlines merged on December 9, 2013.
Saying there was no app at the time is not correct (as is saying that “American took over US Airways” in any real, meaningful sense).
I completely disagree with Michele B above. Delta has dramatically reduced service to its most loyal customers. Gate and Flight attendendants should do all possible to cater to us elite flyers who purchase 1st class and business class tickets. Many of us have bought into their elite credit cards at HUNDREDS of dollars for annual fee under the false illusion that by achieving Diamond status we have an excellent chance of upgrades. The availability of upgrades has PLUMMETED. Now I need to spend a minimum of 75K (not a problem for me) to maintain access to Skyclubs. Which now I need to stand in line to get in because DELTA made access too liberal post covid. I used to be 100% Delta even at higher prices to maintain Diamond. It’s value is so diminished that it is no longer worth changing. Their next public announced move is to further add more levels to all classes of service. When they get around to 1st class, will it require to pay more for what I receive now? I am looking forward to Peanut butter and optional jelly sandwiches on long hall . So as I switch to any airline with lower price, perhaps Delta will realize some day and FIRE Ed as CEO. What Delta shareholders should demand is instead of these cut backs to their MOST LOYAL customers, they should follow Walmart, Ford, Harley, John Deere, and a host of others to immediately CANCEL all DEI and WOKE policies. DELTA website is FULL of descriptions of DEI and WOKE policies which waste precious resources! Wake up “Empty Suit” Ed and put maximum effort in retaining your best customers
The Cleveland comment is bogus! Cleveland is NOT considered the basement of the country. What are you smokin? Flight Attendants are not allowed off the aircraft while boarding and deplaning as per THE FAA requirements. Get your facts straight.
I’ve definitely been a beneficiary of gate agents doing this skip of couples before. I actually thought it was part of their procedures. Usually once my place in the upgrade list falls below the number of remaining FC seats I’ll stop checking the app. This has led me to a few occasions where I scan my pass during boarding in my zone, and suddenly the scanner prints out an updated pass for FC. I’m still excited for the upgrade, but at the same time mildly annoyed since by this point I’ll have missed initial drink service, and possibly the opportunity to use an overhead bin up there.