Effective as of Monday, October 10, 2016, members of the SkyMiles frequent flier loyalty program who have earned Silver Medallion elite level status are now eligible for complimentary upgrades to the domestic first class cabin on award travel within 24 hours prior to departure of the flight.

Silver Medallion Upgrades on Award Tickets

SkyMiles members who have earned Medallion elite level status are eligible for complimentary upgrades to Delta Comfort+ on:

• All flights within the 50 United States and Canada
• Flights within select Asia Pacific markets
• Flights within select Latin America and Caribbean regions

For flights within Latin America and the Caribbean markets serviced with Delta One and select Asia Pacific markets — including China and Hong Kong — and other markets such as translatlantic flights, Medallion elite level status members will continue to upgrade to Delta Comfort+ via the seat map.

Medallion Companion Upgrades

Also in effect is if you have Medallion elite level status and your companion who is traveling with you on the same itinerary has lower or no elite level status whatsoever, you are now both considered whoever has the higher Medallion elite level status in terms of upgrade priority.

Upgrade Hierarchy

Effective as of Saturday, April 30, 2016, the clearance priority for complimentary upgrades was simplified, as shown in the chart below.

For more details on when your upgrade will clear:

• For First Class upgrades, Diamond and Platinum Medallion members will clear five calendar days prior to departure, Gold Medallion members will clear three calendar days prior to departure and Silver Medallion members will clear one calendar day prior to departure — subject to upgrade availability.
• For Delta Comfort+ upgrades, Diamond and Platinum Medallion members will be upgraded to Delta Comfort+ immediately after booking, if available. Gold Medallion members will clear 3 calendar days prior to departure and Silver Medallion members will clear 1 calendar day prior to departure subject to upgrade availability.

Upgrade Priority:

• Medallion elite status level is the most important factor in upgrade clearance priority, in the following order:
  • Diamond Medallion elite status level members
  • Platinum elite status level members
  • Gold elite status level members
  • Silver elite status level members
• Members at the same Medallion elite status level will be cleared in order of fare class groupings for revenue tickets, Award Tickets and Pay with Miles tickets, with higher fare classes among all ticket types holding higher priority.
• Partner airline elite members and SPG Platinum Preferred members will be eligible for day-of-departure upgrades only — and SPG Platinum Preferred members are only eligible for Unlimited Complimentary First Class Upgrades

Improving your priority:

• Delta Reserve Credit Card Members will have a higher prioritization within their Medallion group for upgrades — Upgrade Priority within the same Medallion tier and fare class grouping is applicable only to Basic Card Members.
• Delta Corporate Travelers traveling on a Delta corporate ticket for business will now have a higher prioritization within their Medallion group for upgrades — to be eligible for the Corporate Upgrade benefit, Corporate Travelers must be SkyMiles Medallion members and traveling on a ticket that includes their employer’s eligible Corporate Ticket Designator. When certain conditions are met, customers traveling on Corporate Ticket Designators will receive priority over similarly situated customers not traveling on Corporate Ticket Designators when standing by for a Medallion Complimentary Upgrade.
• If all else is equal, Card Members who earned the Medallion Qualification Dollars waiver by spending at least $25,000.00 in the current calendar year on their Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express will enjoy higher priority.
• Date and time of upgrade request will be used as a tie-breaker.

All SkyMiles Medallion benefits terms and conditions apply.

Summary

If you purchased a Y class fare — typically full price for a ticket to be seated in the economy class cabin — you will no longer be able to upgrade yourself at the time of booking your flight.

Silver Medallion elite level status in the SkyMiles frequent flier loyalty program is generally thought to not be very rewarding; so to add a benefit such as upgrades on award tickets theoretically improves and increases the value of Silver Medallion — but only if space is available…

…and if recent history of upgraded travel on revenue tickets for SkyMiles members with Silver Medallion elite level status is of any indication — plus the ability for companions of SkyMiles members who have earned Medallion elite level status to now be elevated to the same elite status level, meaning that companions of Diamond, Platinum and Gold Medallion members will be elevated to those respective levels of status and therefore trump anyone with Silver Medallion status — this benefit will have little meaning overall.

Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.