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A Delta Air Lines phone rep allegedly gave one of our readers some incorrect information the other day. We want to make sure you know what’s up in case you run into the same situation.
“Jane” (not her real name) sent me an email this week. She was very excited to book an award trip to Hawaii. Rightfully so! Trips to Hawaii are generally pretty fun — especially when miles and points pay the tab!
Jane is a Platinum Medallion. She wanted to use Regional Upgrade Certificates to get her traveling party into First Class. (Remember, Delta now allows Upgrade Certificates to be used on award bookings and on several passengers with whom you travel.)
She called the Platinum Medallion phone line to apply her RUC. Jane and her group instantly upgraded to First Class on a couple of flights; they’re waitlisted on the others.
But then something interesting came up during her conversation with the phone rep: the new Upgrade Cetficiate rules taking effect on February 1. The most notable new policy deals with one-cabin-higher upgrades.
For example, the days of purchasing a Main Cabin ticket and applying a Global Upgrade Certificate to score a confirmed Delta One seat will be gone. If you want a confirmed Delta One seat, you must buy Premium Select then apply your Global Upgrade Certificate.
We didn’t think that would apply to Regional Upgrade Certificates. (Like, you wouldn’t need to purchase a Comfort+ fare to get cleared into First Class. Buying a Main Cabin ticket would make you eligible.)
It even says so on Delta’s website:
Flights with First Class: If you purchase Main Cabin or Comfort+, when you apply your Upgrade Certificate, you will be upgraded to First Class upon request.
But the phone rep told Jane people will have to purchase Comfort+ fares to use Regional Upgrade Certificates for First Class upgrades. Main Cabin tickets won’t cut it.
Um, what?
There were a couple of reasons that made no sense.
- The rep’s statement contradicts what Delta says on its website. (There was a concern amongst a few of us that maybe the rep was spilling beans — and maybe Comfort+ purchases will eventually be required to apply Upgrade Certs to First Class. But I doubt it.)
- Diamonds and Platinums already receive complimentary upgrades to Comfort+ a few minutes after ticketing a reservation (inventory permitting). So would that perk be eliminated — and we’d have to use our Regional Upgrade Certificates instead to move up to Comfort+? I mean, Comfort+ is slightly better than most Main Cabin seats — but sure as heck not worth burning a Regional Upgrade Certificate.
I contacted a Delta corporate representative and asked for clarification. This rep told me:
“Customers can purchase Main Cabin or Delta Comfort+ to be eligible for an upgrade to First Class using an upgrade certificate – the language on delta.com is correct.”
There you have it.
So don’t go spending your miles or cash on Comfort+ unless you really want. (The best that could do is get you better fare class — and serve as an upgrade tie-breaker if inventory comes down to that. Which I don’t think is very likely, especially on most domestic flights.)
The rep also added this verbiage from the Delta website:
Global Upgrade Certificates will now have access to all First Class and Delta Premium Select seats upon request – that means any First Class and Delta Premium Select seats not sold will be available to be cleared immediately upon request. For Delta One upgrades, it is pending availability. For example: for flights with Delta One and Delta Premium Select, if you purchase Delta Premium Select and then apply your Global Upgrade Certificate, you will be upgraded to Delta One when you apply your certificate (pending availability).
Final Approach
If you have a Regional Upgrade Certificate and want to apply it toward a confirmed Delta First Class upgrade, you may buy a Main Cabin fare. The new one-cabin-higher rule made things a bit confusing. But Delta itself says Main Cabin to First Class is not affected.
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I had an unusual situation a week ago when I bought a ticket 10 days out as a diamond but there were no comfort plus seats. I applied a regional upgrade certificate and 24 hours out I was number one on the upgrade list for first class but number two for comfort plus. I called an agent and spoke to them and they told me The regional cert could apply for a first class upgrade or a comfort plus but not for both. In the past I was always automatically put number one in both categories, if I had not previously cleared for a comfort class.
First time I’ve ever heard that…
Hello. This is interesting. I did come across your scenario a few days ago….I called the Diamond Desk to burn one of my Regionals on an upgrade from JFK-SFO and the Diamond Desk told me that as of February 1st, you need to purchase a Premium Select-priced ticket to upgrade to Delta One when you are flying ok an aircraft that has a 4-cabin configuration. Flabbergasted, I contacted some red coats i know as well as someone in corporate and they said that what the desk said was correct, and that the update was not posted yet. Given, your article, I am not sure of the source of truth…
I wonder if we’ll hear something ugly on Tuesday morning…
definitely possible. I really hope what you heard is in fact correct! Fingers crossed 😉
What about using GUCs on domestic routes? With the new deadline and I have so many I may want to burn a couple on domestic flight. Has there been any policy announcement about using GUCs domestically? Thanks
You can use them. They take precedence over RUC.
This is partially true. In order to get an instant confirmed D1 seat (if one is available for sale) on a 4-cabin flight, you need to purchase a Premium Select seat. If you purchase a main cabin and apply a cert, you will get an instant one cabin upgrade to PS AND you will be waitlisted for a D1 seat (like the old/current days).
If you purchase a Premium Select and apply a GUC, you get upgraded to D1 if there is upgrade space available. You don’t get an instant upgrade to D1 in the way that if you purchase coach or comfort plus, you get upgraded to Premium Select and waitlisted for D1 to clear 24 hours before the flight.
On SFO–JFK, I’m seeing both “Delta One available with upgrade certificates” and “Delta One available with Global upgrade certificates” – e.g. – on same day, some flights say former, and others say latter.
I booked an overseas flight in coach before the new policy came in. I applied one GUC each way. Since I wasn’t upgraded to Delta One, yesterday the new policy came into effect and I was upgraded to Premium Select on the international legs. No upgrade to first on the domestic legs, even though it seemed that the new policy should give first class on domestic (as there is no Premium Select) and Premium Select with a waitlist to Delta One on the international, hopefully to clear 24 hours before departure. At the same time I noticed that my reservation said “Waitlisted” on the international segments (only when looking at the reservation on the web).
Today I called Delta and after a lot of back and forth with her helpdesk, the agent agreed that I should have been upgraded to first class on the domestic legs and did the upgrades. When I went back into the reservation, I noticed that it no longer said “Waitlisted” next to the international legs. I called back Delta and was told this was how it was supposed to be under the new policy.
So I was left wondering the following:
(1) Am I really waitlisted for Delta One on the international flights?
(2) If so, would the removal of “Waitlisted” happen anyway and I just happened to notice it today, or was I in fact still waitlisted under the old policy and by forcing myself into first class on the domestic legs, did I force myself out of the old policy into the new one?
I would appreciate it if the next person to apply a GUC from Coach would go into their reservation on the web and see whether it says “Waitlisted” anywhere.
I called back about something else and mentioned this issue to a different agent. She told me my ticket needed to be issued. She got it reissued and now it says I am waitlisted. So it looks like I actually wasn’t waitlisted.
According to the terms and conditions on the regional upgrade certificates, this is not correct. It is only good for a one-cabin upgrade. I just checked mine today.
What exactly isn’t correct?
The terms and conditions on the RUCs state the following: Effective 2/1, “this certificate is valid for a one cabin upgrade….”
They need to sort this out.
They need everyone on the same page, yes.
It’s still true. Comfort Plus is not a different cabin from Main.
I was Just told the same thing today! Couldn’t use my RUC unless I but comfort+
Unreal.
I hope you politely said goodbye, and called back in until you found someone that knows the rules.
Seems easier said than done these days, unfortunately. (The finding someone who knows the rules part, that is. I’m sure Brett is polite and kind.)
Correct. I said, oh ok, have a nice day. Called back 3 hours later. Booked.
Nicely done.
I had a similar experience: the first Diamond Desk agent I spoke to said I would need two RUCs to go from Main to First, but all the others said only one is necessary. Delta makes clear on their website: “Our Delta One, First Class, and Main Cabin are Delta’s primary cabins of service. Delta Comfort+, Main Cabin, and Basic Economy are three experiences within our Main Cabin.” This is a great think to mention to a mistaken agent. DC+ is still main cabin, so RUCs can absolutely be used to go from main to FC any time!