How far in advance is Delta releasing upgrades?
 

Just tried to buy a ticket to France in September using Skymiles to upgrade. The agent told me that upgrades had not been released for the oversees portion of the route. Last 2 times we did this, it was 6 months out and we had no problem. Does anyone know what the deal is?

That is very odd. I have bought tickets and upgraded 10 months prior on American and 6 months prior on Delta for overseas flights. In fact, I'm going to France the end of May on Delta, and I bought and upgraded those tickets in December. I would call back--you will probably get a different agent who can help you or at least you can ask for an explanation.

It depends how many business class seats are available. If there are only a few left, they are going to wait until they feel that they won't be sold. Did you ask to be put on a wait list for the upgrade? Also, are you planning to fly on Delta or Air France? If you haven't actually bought the tickets yet, see whether the upgrade is available on one or the other.

Yes, even the agent said it was odd. The flights were very lightly booked and there were &quot;zero&quot; upgrades available for any flights from Atl to CDG from the end of Sept thru Oct. <BR><BR>Upon futher checking, she found that there were no seats in Business Elite booked at all on the flights she went into and manually checked, indicating that they were not releasing upgrades. I'd rather fly Delta over AF just because of the Business Elite.<BR><BR>You'd think they'd rather sell me a $1300 upgradable ticket on Delta than book me on Air France anyway.

I agree that Business Elite is great, but if you can confirm the upgrade on AF, that might be a better option than booking economy on Delta and hope to get the upgrade. If you can be patient, however, Delta should be releasing upgrades if the B.E. seats are not filling up.

The problem is if you are using Delta miles, you will have to buy the entire ticket for AF (requiring a bunch more miles and getting no frequent flier milage credit for the flight) than if you upgrade a Delta ticket. I would wait a while and just keep calling back.

Linda, check with Delta about Rachel's last post. Delta now offers Sky Team awards, which apply to any of the Delta Sky Team partners (which AF is one) and you can mix and match Sky Team carriers. I was unable to tell from Delta's website if you can use miles to upgrade a purchased AF ticket. If so, you would get Delta SkyMiles if you fly AF because they are a Sky Team partner.

You cannot upgrade a purchased AF ticket with Delta miles. At least, you couldn't as of 2 mos ago, because I have tried to do it. You have to purchase a Delta ticket to be able to upgrade the purchased ticket or use miles to get an whole ticket on AF.

Thanks to all who replied. I called back and got a different agent and was able to get the upgrade, but not on the dates I had hoped for, unless I was willing to fly N.O.-Cinn-JFK-Paris. <BR>Pushing the trip to Oct. was a better option, so that's what we did. <BR><BR>Just like I've read here time &amp; again, you have to be flexable but it's doable.<BR><BR>One other thing I'd like to add. Delta has finally come to its senses and eliminated that ridiculous policy of issuing a paper ticket for international travel when doing milage upgrades, making you trek to the airport to exchange it for the upgraded ticket. That was a real pain for those of us who don't have a Delta city office, especially with the airport security checks.