Stuck in Delta's Medallion upgrade queue? Trust us: You're not alone
Picture this: You're a Delta Air Lines elite status member getting ready for a flight. You check the first-class upgrade waitlist … and have to scroll and scroll to find your name, way down the list.
If it sounds familiar, you're not alone.
Complimentary Medallion upgrades have gotten harder to come by in recent years.
It's due, in part, to an unprecedented surge in flyers willing to pay up for the higher-end seats, TPG reported last fall — leaving fewer available for upgrades.
Now, Delta hopes an expansion of its extra-legroom Comfort Plus seating section will help placate its Medallion flyers, who in recent years have run into trouble securing even those seats.
Read more: Delta inches closer to 'basic business,' hints at more premium seats in future

From free upgrade to paid first-class seat
Last November, executives with the Atlanta-based carrier shared a head-turning statistic: As recently as 2010, they said, only 12% of passengers flying in Delta's domestic first-class cabin actually paid for their ticket.
Today, it's around 75%.
That means today most first-class seats are sold out — leaving fewer available for Medallion elites hoping to clear the upgrade queue.
That shift was, in part, by design.
Once roughly 13 times the price of a coach seat, Delta has made first-class tickets a more realistic investment for customers in order to sell the high-end seats that once would've gone unsold.
"We were not selling premium seats 10 or 15 years ago. We were giving them away," Delta President Glen Hauenstein said, speaking Thursday on the company's earnings call. "We made them much more affordable — much more attainable."

It's not just Delta.
Airlines, armed with enhanced tech and revenue management systems, have become far more adept at predicting what customers might be willing to pay for a seat — and what price might be so high that it causes the seat to stay empty.
Look no further than the paid upgrade offers most of us get after we book a flight. "Upgrade for $90!"
How about $79? How about $59?
Every time a customer bites on an offer like that, there's one fewer first-class seat available for a status member hoping to score a complimentary spot in the front cabin.
"In terms of our [upgrade] standby list, yes, there's a long standby list, and we have a lot of premium customers," Hauenstein acknowledged Thursday.
Related: Is AI the reason your flight costs more? What Delta's new pricing tech really means
Comfort Plus in high demand, too
Not surprisingly, Delta is seeing a similar trend play out in its Comfort Plus section, its extra-space coach seats.
As a reminder, Medallion elites have the right to select Comfort Plus seats for free at these intervals:
- Medallion Silvers can select Comfort Plus seats within 24 hours of departure
- Gold members can move into Comfort Plus within 72 hours of takeoff
- Platinum and Diamond members can move to these seats "shortly after ticketing"
But like first-class, the Comfort Plus seats often fill up, too, especially as Delta reports skyrocketing membership in its SkyMiles loyalty program.
"Most of our elite customers are allowed to upgrade into those products at the time of booking, and we didn't have enough of those," Hauenstein told analysts. "If you look across the spectrum, we were generally sold out of Comfort Plus early in the booking [window]."

Expanding Comfort Plus
In recent years, Delta has been working to change that. Its new deliveries boast more Comfort Plus seats than older planes; the carrier has also been retrofitting older cabins to sport more of the extra-space rows, contributing to a 25% to 30% spike in overall premium seats, executives noted.
A Delta spokesperson on Thursday confirmed the airline has completed retrofits on many of its narrowbody aircraft, including the following models:
- Boeing 737-900ERs
- Boeing 757-200s (75D and 75H configurations)
- Boeing 717s
- Airbus A319
- Airbus A321neo
- Airbus A220-100
Delta expects to complete the retrofits for its A220-300, Boeing 737-800 and 757 "75G" aircraft by next year.

Bottom line
Delta certainly enjoys the financial benefit of selling these higher-priced seats.
But fulfilling a perk of Medallion status remains a priority for the carrier, as Hauenstein suggested Thursday while speaking about the increased number of Comfort Plus seats that have become available — or will become available soon.
"Now being able to increase that so we can accommodate more of our most premium customers with premium offerings at time of booking," he said, "I think we see that there are many, many more opportunities in premium in the coming years."
Delta's narrowbody jets aren't the only aircraft getting a cabin revamp.
The carrier is also working to harmonize its product across its long-haul fleet, expanding its swankiest Delta One suites to more of its twin-aisle jets.
Meanwhile, in a nod to the unrelenting demand for these high-end seats, the carrier will soon debut an Airbus A321neo with an unprecedented 44 first-class recliners.
Related reading: