There’s a chance you encountered a message like this when checking in for a Delta Air Lines trip involving Global Upgrade Certificate (GUC) or Regional Upgrade Certificate (RUC):
That’s what happened to me during a recent trip.
So, what gives?
Using an Upgrade Certificate? Your Ticket Must Be Reissued
Upgrade Certficiates can’t be applied online directly by SkyMiles members. You must call Delta reservations (or your Medallion line) and ask a representative to do it for you. (Delta told us we’ll be able to manually apply Upgrade Certificates online sometime in the near future.)
Once an Upgrade Certificate is applied to your trip, your ticket needs to be reissued. Some Delta phone representatives know this and can do it on the spot.
Others don’t. They just apply the certificate and send you on your merry little way. You might assume they reissued your ticket.
That’s what I did when applying an expiring Regional Upgrade Certificate to a recent trip. (Assuming isn’t often a good practice.) I forgot to ask the representative to reissue the ticket.
Several months later, I tried using the Fly Delta app to check in for that flight. I received the “Oops! We’re Sorry…” message. I didn’t have any luck on Delta.com, either.
So, I called Delta and spoke to a rep. She told me the ticket needed to be reissued because I used a Regional Upgrade certficate. (You can’t check in without, you know, a valid and issued ticket). Unfortunately, she couldn’t do it herself. She had to get in touch with another department.
That took a while.
Much to my surprise, my Regional Upgrade Certificate actually scored me a confirmed upgrade to First Class well before my upgrade window opened! (Can you believe it?!)
Final Approach
When you apply an Upgrade Certificate to your Delta Air Lines flight, ensure the Delta rep with whom you speak reissues your ticket. Otherwise, won’t be able to check in. Delta says we can add Upgrade Certificates ourselves in 2023. Hopefully, this won’t be a problem anymore.
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It happened to me recently when I used mine to fly to LAX. I also had to see an agent at an airport when I was on the upgrade list and something hadn’t been done properly when putting me on the waiting list.
It has happened to me twice Very frustrating when trying to check in. Now I know why. Thank you for the heads up. Also, twice I was told that when RUC’s were not available, that I wouldn’t be waitlisted if any space opened up. Not only was I not on the waitlist for the RUC, I was not on the upgrade list as a Platinum.
“Also, twice I was told that when RUC’s were not available, that I wouldn’t be waitlisted if any space opened up. Not only was I not on the waitlist for the RUC, I was not on the upgrade list as a Platinum.”
What?! That’s unacceptable.
Happened to me last month as well; I would have cleared if they hadn’t kept me off the waitlist due to my RUC. I sent a message to complaints/comments and they gave me some miles. Because another segment had cleared, they also wouldn’t refund the RUC. So I sat in a middle seat in the very back. I’ve learned you have to call and ask why you aren’t on the upgrade list as soon as checkin starts. Folks are also probably not getting the 3-day out upgrades either if they’ve been wait listed for a RUC.
This has also happened to me twice this year.
Thank you for explaining, this is very helpful, it happened to me a month ago and had to go from one ticketing agent to another at the airport. It was frustrating and thankfully I was early as this added another unexpected 45 mins to my trip.
I hope it helps down the road!
I had this problem a couple times. I just checked in at the airport desk (not kiosk). The agents did not knwo why I wasnt able to do this online. Now Iknow.
TY
The problem isn’t an agent reissuing your ticket when you apply the certificate. If your trip is more than 3 days out the que automatically reissues the ticket. That is why when confirmed space is available we add it, delete the old class and assign seats. Unfortunately technology isn’t always the greatest and doesn’t always work properly and an agent will need to manually reissue the ticket.
Also, when you’re wait listed you will always get that error message because your segments do not match the ticket.
Thanks, Xtina!
This ticket reissuance has the potential to cause a problem if you’re upgrading a ticket for work-related travel. I upgraded an overseas work trip that ended up getting cancelled (COVID surge). I assumed the credit would be applied to my employer’s account since the ticket was purchased by corporate with a corporate credit card but under my name so I could use the credit for a future booking. This was not the case. The reissuance uncoupled my original ticket from the corporate travel account so the credit was issued to me. I thought it was odd I had no credit to use when I booked my next overseas work trip. Only when I was checking what upgrade certificates I had left did I notice e-credit in my SkyMiles account. The second trip was upgraded and also had to be cancelled (employer decision), but this time I asked our corporate travel agent to handle the cancellation with Delta and told her I had credit for the first cancelled trip under my control. She didn’t believe me until she cancelled my second ticket. Since she was involved the second time, she had the reference number for the credit (which is also a reissuance) and could link that in our corporate travel system for use next time. When booking a third trip, I had to remind our corporate travel agent to use my credit from the first trip. So, long story short – cancelling an upgraded ticket will reissue that ticket as a credit and you should probably involve corporate travel in the cancellation if it’s a work trip to ensure the credit is available in your corporate account.
The exact situation described in this article has happened to me 2 out of the last 4 times I have attempted to check in for a flight on which I had applied a regional upgrade certificate. It is annoying, so then I have to call Delta and it seems like it takes forever for the phone agent to do it.
If reps are repeatedly doing something wrong here, why is it so difficult to provide training on the correct procedure?
I’ve also had agents refuse to reissue and say they’re too busy, if I ask before check-in. It’s ridiculous that this is a “benefit.” I’m kind of dreading their promise next year to allow us to self-apply RUCs/GUCs. With Delta IT, it’ll probably just be some way to automatically send a request to a queue that some humans work “if time permits.”
It is an ongoing problem when applying the Certs..I call they say it is all OK and them cannot check-in…have to call again!!
This was helpful, thank you much. The first Delta rep had no idea what he was talking about, after i called back and told them what you explained in the article it was taken care of.
There is an easy check for this. When you open your itinerary click on receipt. The fare class on the ticket needs to be updated to the upgrade class (O)
If it still shows your purchased class — that means it hasn’t been re ticketed.
Thanks, Joe!