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This has been a beyond disappointing travel year for us all. Thanks to the selfish (and mentally deficient) anti-vaxers who refuse to get vaccinated*, the world is at risk of having travel as we once knew it gone forever. (*other than those who have a real, legitimate, medical reason not to get the shots).
As I have blogged before, I had the most amazing first ever Delta Global Upgrade cert applied to a Delta SkyMiles award ticket in my life. Not only was it flawless but the flights were perfect. I was going to fly to take an amazing NCL transatlantic cruise after nearly two years off the sea.
Just perfect.
But thanks to COVID, and to a large extent thanks to those who are keeping us in this nightmare, all those plans went down the toilet. I could not fly or travel or enjoy anything I had hoped for.
Then another opportunity opened up.
I now have a chance to travel to Europe before the end of the year. I know that the COVID situation may mean this also is out the window as well but until that time arrives I am working on re-using my Delta Global upgrade certs to travel in luxury* (*well, kinda luxury since Delta has cheapened the Delta One presentation to something similar to the Delta Premium Comfort experience I flew on the first A350 flight).
At this point in the post is the part where you want to really start paying attention because it may impact you as well as me.
Delta, during this COVID nightmare, has done some truly unforgivable nasty things like two, yes two, massive partner Skymiles devaluations in business class to Europe and beyond. But they have also tossed us a beef rib-sized bone as well allowing us to use Global Upgrade certs on award tickets.
Again – just HUGE!
But anything huge with Delta tends to toss the fragile Delta IT into a mess. And that is the case with the latest “enhancement”.
Like what?
If you happen to select your free elite upgrade to Comfort Plus it can make getting a Global Upgrade request cert into your reservation let’s just say difficult at best (nearly impossible at worst).
What else?
Let’s assume you have had the request loaded in (or at least you see it correctly on Delta.com and the reps tell you it is loaded correctly) then what? Are you set?
Well… Maybe…
I once got some amazing advice from a very long-time Delta flyer and was told it would be wise for me to, every day, check by searching for one or two open upgrade seats on the route I want.
Why?
You guessed it – Delta’s IT is unlikely to clear you as it should.
Really? Really!
In my case, I woke up the other day and was still in coach and searched for upgrade space and found it wide open and not just for 1 or 2 seats but a bunch. I called Delta and when I, after a wait, got ahold of a rep was cleared instantly into Delta One.
Are there other tips that can help?
Yep!
Even with the broken Delta IT, one thing Delta.com will not do for you no matter how you have the request loaded in is look for alternative routes to get where you are going where upgrade space has opened up. Again, you must be proactive and search for open space every day for the days you are flying and see if anything new has opened up and then try to switch to those flights if you can for free and upgrade. That also happened to me on this upcoming trip.
Another tip that may or may not be real is what triggers this change from no open certificate upgrade space to wide open space is a change in equipment. In my case, this is what I believe happened that allowed my upgrade to clear, but that is just my guess but a good one.
Finally, if you go to change your seat assignment and the seat-map is in “view only” mode this is yet another “tell” that you have in fact been cleared into First / Delta One but the IT system has not done what it should and processed you so it is again time to call Delta.
Bottom line is when it comes to flying Delta and getting the best benefit for your elite status, you have to take control and invest the time to get the best you can for what is offered i.e. don’t expect things to work as published! – René
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Totally agree. You fly all those miles, you think you’ve got a great benefit… and then it’s ridiculously hard to use the GUC’s. A total slap in the face
How do you search for Upgrade space? Thank you!
@Sam – If you are a medallion, and are logged in, it should display if upgrade space is open or not for the flights you are searching.
Thanks!
Do you ever actually get any space displayed?
I did a random search on tickets to Hawaii. I could not find a single day in the next year where I could use an RUC on the MSP or AATL to Honolulu flights
@Greg – Yes but those routes you have to check often – really often – and especially so when changes happen like most Friday / Saturday / Sundays!
Very helpful information René!
I was not aware of your super tips!
Gotta run and check everything now
Thanks!
@Nina – Happy to help. Look forward to seeing you up in the air one day again.
I’m still waiting to see that my GUC update there expiration date. I have one that shows to expire 12/31/21…. I thought they ALL got extended to 2023?
@jsm – Nothing has updated yet. We have time.
ok, great thanks Rene’!
Just to give an up date. My GUC set to expire on 12/31/21 updated yesterday ( Friday 8/20 ) . Its new expiration is 1/31/23 as was promised by Delta. Yahoo!
Rene, I know if you are Platinum or Diamond and book an award flight and cancel 72 hours or more before the flight, you get your mile back. What if you book an award flight and use your GUC? If you cancel, do you lose the GUC?
@John – You should get them back with same exp date as before. It is wise to make sure when you cancel to tell the rep to redeposit them to your account as well.
@ Rene-
I know it’s not the focus of your reply, but my understanding is that everyone gets their miles redeposited for free now, and there’s no 72-hour requirement either. Is that right?
Thx.
@Eric S – You are correct. Both the horrid 72 hour rule and the fees to redeposit are gone!
Domestic flights are an issue too. Two months ago I used regional upgrade certs for a RT booking: MCO-SLC-PDX. Half the legs were upgraded immediately. The other half were waitlisted. Everyday thereafter I did dummy bookings to check upgrade availability. After two weeks of monitoring, immediate upgrades became available for new bookings. I had to call Delta to get my upgrades. Having failed to clear on their own I’m convinced I would have been stuck in Comfort +.
Having no luck with regional upgrades !! Last trip on a red eye to Atlanta there were 31 on the upgrade list!!!!Working on Upgrade to EU for Fall to apply for Business Class-Have called and waited on hold to discuss and will keep calling!!
For my EU trip in Oct there are still20 delta one seats open! I have called and been on hold 3 times to make sure our coupons are in the system…they tell me yes??? but still not going thru.Last time I used GUC’s my daughter with no status got upgraded a week before and I got the seat at about 2 hours before???gotta love the IT dept.
Our trip to FCO is about 180 days from now. Delta one is wide open on the flights that I want but naturally there is no upgrade availability. No surprise there. Is there any downside to requesting to the two of us being waitlisted? Also is there a way to know that the two of us have been waitlisted properly? I ask the second question because I was waitlisted several years ago only to learn months later that the rep had not waitlisted me properly.
Your reservation’s upgrade status should say something like, “Upgrade Waitlisted.” Plus, you can always call back a while later and verify with another rep that you’ve been waitlisted properly.
Had 4 RUC’s for MSP to OGG. Two separate reservations (I’m Diamond and used a free companion upgrade to comfort+ for me and my daughter, booked my husband and son on a separate linked reservation and paid for comfort+). Was waitlisted on the SEA to OGG leg (MSP to SEA had already cleared but removed for longer leg). My husband has always had a shadow reservation but I haven’t. Noticed yesterday that pay to upgrade went away and first class blocked off. Called to see if cleared and no (but also questionable rep knowledge of RUCs on the Diamond line). This morning, I had a shadow reservation and when I went on a computer (not my phone) the seat map said “view only”. I called and sure enough we had cleared, and after requesting the RUC to be added to the first leg, it immediately cleared for all 4 of us. Also noting no notification from Delta, no call. No email. The only indications I had was that I had been paying attention to the seats available for paid upgrade and the shadow reservation suddenly showing up for me.