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Delta Air Lines made a couple of Medallion-friendly moves: it extended Upgrade Certificates through the rest of this year and also made it somewhat easier to redeem them!
Upgrade Certificates: Good Through December 2021
A Delta spokesperson told us:
We know how much our Medallion Members value their Upgrade Certificates, and we want to make them easier to use so customers have more choice and control in managing their travel plans. It’s now possible to check Delta.com for Upgrade Certificate availability for specific flights and cabin experiences. And we’re giving customers more time to use existing certificates by extending the expiration date to December 31, 2021.
The news is also confirmed on Delta.com:
All unused, active and/or previously expired Upgrade Certificates that were selected between March 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020 will be extended through the end of 2021 and can now be booked and flown by December 31, 2021. All active Upgrade Certificates will be extended, and unused, previously expired Upgrade Certificates will be reissued by Monday, March 8, 2021; these updates will be automatically reflected in your SkyMiles account.
This follows a thread posted yesterday on FT in which a member wrote that his/her Upgrade Certificates originally set to expire on March 1 were granted an extension through the end of the year.
**RELATED: DEVELOPING: Delta Diamond Medallion Status EXTENDED Through January 2023?!
I think the extensions were necessary to keep the hordes happy. Good for Delta for recognizing this and proactively doing something about it.
Check Upgrade Certificate Seat Availability on Delta.com!
Here’s a big improvement.
Many of us know the pain in the you-know-what of calling Delta with a list of flights — and asking if any have confirmed upgrade inventory.
Now, though, Delta gives us the option to check availability on Delta.com!
Certificates still must be applied by calling a Medallion service rep. But this certainly saves some time searching and asking.
Final Approach
Extending Upgrade Certificates and adding the ability for us to check inventory ourselves are a couple of great moves by Delta. Overdue? Maybe. But the fact we can now take advantage of more opportunities adds a little bit of value back to the SkyMiles program.
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I’m not seeing the UC extension yet. However, this morning I looked at my certificates after reading your “Delta Diamond Medallion Status EXTENDED” post, and I noticed that my two companion certificates expired 12/31/2022, which would have been great. However, I just checked again, and now both are back to 12/31/2021. It seems like Delta IT is doing some tinkering, and it will be interesting to see where everything ends up.
Interesting — thanks for the DP!
It appears that this tool came at the cost of the old Complimentary Upgrade Availability tracker in which one could tell if comp UG space was available to C+ or First under the “View Upgrade Eligibility” tab.
I just checked an Amsterdam trip on Delta for global upgrade availability and was able to find it instantly. This is a HUGE improvement. In recent years, since Delta took away the ability to look for upgrade seats on ExpertFlyer, I’ve spent countless hours looking for upgradeable flights.
What Delta took away from ExpertFlyer years ago, Delta gave back to its own free search tool. Thank you Delta and thank you Rene’s Points for the head’s up.
“What Delta took away from ExpertFlyer years ago, Delta gave back to its own free search tool.”
I love it!
Hope that Delta IT is still working on this as one of my upgrade certs is showing the new extended deadline of 12/31/21 but another one is still showing the original expiration date.
Delta said the process should be complete on March 8.