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Today’s post is a request, but first some background. You would not believe the number of blog comments, emails, tweets and more that I have received as of late with Delta elites griping about not being able to use their Delta Regional (RU) or Global (GU) upgrades. The volume of this has definitely gone way up this year as compared to the previous years.
- Translation = Delta is getting more stingy with RU & GU space.
This is not really shocking to me as this is happening across the board. Less upgrades at the 6,5,3&1 day window. Less same day seats available for upgrades as Delta offers low-ball, uber cheap FCM or upgrades for sale again and again. Yes, it is maddeningly frustrating when you request an upgrade on a flight that has ZERO 1st class seats sold and yes Delta revenue management has not released any seats for upgrade.
- Folks – I feel your pain!
Having said the words above, looking at this from Delta’s viewpoint, I understand their process to a certain degree. Take the flight at the top of the page as one example. When I first booked it there we no seats sold – zero! I requested an RU upgrade and no space was available (this sounds familiar). I have left my RU upgrade request in for months now and nothing has opened up so far. But do notice they have sold, one way or another, half of the seats? Good for them?
Now before your head explodes this Monday morning, don’t think I am a sell out and taking Delta’s side on this one as I am not. I just said I “understand” what is happening. I also feel it is just ridiculous that Delta can offer RU & GU certs as a perk of spending a ton of money with Delta and flying Delta a bunch and then not give out enough space to use the perk you have been promised. There is an element of bait-N-switch here and I get that.
Personally I have done very well with all my certs and have never had one go bye-bye (yet). My GU certs are gone almost instantly each year. My RU certs I only have two of from last year but now have a number of flights I have requested space on and they are just sitting and waiting.
All of this is interesting, I agree, but none of it really has to do with today’s post. I have shown you here on the blog how you can check to see if RU or GU space has opened up by clicking on the second shadow seat map as you see from the shot at the top of this post. That is, once it turns RED you can call Delta and your upgrade is cleared! I have this year, as I always do, checked my flights often to see if something has opened up. A few times they have like my recent flight to Hong Kong. It seems like the open space has been hitting on Sundays this year (at least for me). And thus the reason for this post.
- I need your help please!
Can you today in the poll below, if you are 100% sure, click on the day of the week you have had an RU or GU clear. Then, another favor, please bookmark this post. Every time an RU or GU clears come back and click again for that day of the week. I would love to see if there is some kind of pattern we can find or if it really is random from Delta.
Thank you so much readers in advance and feel free to also comment below if you are having a harder time than ever this year spending your RU & GU certs! – René
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You should include an option for at the gate only..
@CJ – Smart. Adding now. Thanks!
No problem! That’s the only time I’ve had them clear. :-/
SkyBonus – I’ve stopped asking for them as they are never available.
SkyMiles – I’m a one man band and have limited time. I loose some each year. This year I have two unused certs. My travel is not flexible and I just don’t have time deal with. I’ve made the call several times and they were not available so I was put on a waitlist and I think that worked once.
This is just one of 100 paper cuts. It hurts, but I’m not going to bleed out. I’m out of a Delta hub which helps but I’m loosing interest in paying extra to earn points on Delta.
Received upgrades only at gate. Itis impossible to get ANY use of GU to or from TLV in advance all year!
Renee, I don’t mind at all that you need ads to help support your blog, but the new ones are likely to drive people away from your blog. I really hate the new pop-ups that started showing up for AmEx promos that cover the blog text itself so you can’t read it unless you first click Close to close the ad. It’s one thing to have ads, but it’s another to have them be obnoxiously disrupting your ability to read the blog without having to dismiss the advertising.
@David R – Thanks for the feedback. I will have the box up now and then for special offers. It is not always going to be up. Here is the thing – every year ad rates ie what advertisers are willing to pay is going down and down HARD! Same goes for CC pay outs – cut by HUGE amounts. You are seeing other major media outlets using software to block users who have ad blockers running ie thus the site gets no income from the eye balls. A large amount of readers on this site also run ad blockers but I have resisted moving to a nag screen or a block screen for such users and this pop up is one way around those who block ads. Thanks again! – Rene
Agree w/@charly, the RU are not even on my radar. I don’t look at them as something that can actually be used.
Please check the link to the “shadow seat map” post. It goes to a post about upgrades & certificates, but doesn’t mention finding the shadow seat map, unless I am missing something–which is always probable
@Frank – Wooppssss. Put in wrong link (thanks fixing now). It is in these podcasts: http://renespoints.boardingarea.com/?s=podcast+regional
We see this a lot and is a major complaint of the many folks we speak with on our travels.
Anyone…check out a JFK – LAX/SFO TRANSCON say in September/October 2017 and see no seats sold. Delta will not give you a RUC on those flights 8-9 months out with ZERO seats sold.
We seem to see (and hear) that a lot of certificates clear after Saturday’s (regular thing now?) schedule changes and some other major IT routines are completed…
Love the idea of this as a permanent post so people can come back and punch in when their’s cleared; so we are assuming people are allowed to ‘vote’ more than once?
@laptoptravel – The WordPress limitation seems to be 8 votes per person. But that should be a workable long term number.
i have not used the GU yet but the companion fare for amex delta is a hard one too ..very limited on what flights you can get… i havae not been able to use 4 of them so far!!!!!!
GU’s are a crapshoot…
Booked SFO-ATL-MAD and was told only the ATL-MAD was open for immediate booking to D1 with 50% of seats already occupied.
Meanwhile, the 1st class cabin on the SFO-ATL leg was totally open with not one seat sold and was told there was NO AVAILABILITY! When I asked the DM Rep on the phone about it, she just sighed and said – “This is the part that makes my job so hard. Rev Management has to release the seats and we have no idea how or why they do what they do.”
Yeah, me either…
A couple of new changes to Global Upgrades:
1. When waitlisted for an upgrade, Delta.Dumb no longer shows “waitlisted”in a reservation when accessing “My Trips”.
2.The “shadow seat map” has now also vanished.
Does anyone have an idea on how to know that we are actually still waitlisted for an upgrade other than calling? If when we do call the rep can see it why can’t we? Even then, given Delta’s history of unfavorable IT changes, how can we be sure?