Remember earlier this year when Delta slashed Medallion upgrades on transcontinental routes between JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA?
Well, apparently BusinessElite wasn’t selling out on these flights, and the cabins were being filled with non-revenue passengers, so Delta has quitely decided to upgrade Platinum and Diamond Medallions on these routes.
This new policy went into effect a few days ago and there were some Flyertalk threads about it, but the official policy is that Diamond and Platinum Medallions traveling on a paid ticket (no award ticket) without a companion should be eligible for an upgrade and be added to the Airport Standby List.
This means that Gold and Silver Medallions, companions, Crossover Rewards, SkyTeam Elite Plus, Alaska MVP, Award Tickets and Pay with Miles tickets will NOT be eligible for upgrades on these routes.
If you do qualify for an upgrade, you will be placed on the list when you check-in but if you don’t it can’t hurt to try and call the Platinum or Diamond Medallion line and asked to be added to the airport standby list, however they may decline adding you.
Delta has not yet updated their website to reflect this change and quite frankly I think they should announce and make upgrades on these routes a published benefit for Diamond and Platinum Medallions.
Has anyone flown this route on Delta the past week? What was your experience getting an upgrade?
Bottom Line
Stop playing games with Transcontinental Upgrades for Platinum and Diamond Medallions and bring back this benefit all together!
Update: Per the Diamond Medallion line, at 6 hours prior to departure, revenue management will clear Diamond and Platinums into BusinessElite based on availability.
Hat Tip: Travel Skills
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Was upgraded today at the JFK SC
This was obviously only a matter of time. It’s just a revenue move. If they can fill FZc by upgrading 5 elites, then they can sell 5 more coach tickets and earn a few more bucks. Any empty seats in FC are just costing them to lose revenue. Considering they can prolly fill all the FC with diamond and platinums, I doubt they’ll need to offer Gold upgrades.
I did a little research, and I heard they were only upgrading plat diamond elite PLUS- Elites with million miler status, is this true?