How can the Platinum Line not know when PMs are upgrade eligible?

Flying JFK-SXM tomorrow morning, checked in, and the website showed my status as "Upgrade Eligible" rather than the usual "Upgrade Requested." (This was odd, since before check-in, it was UR.)

No problem-- I figured it was a website issue. So I looked at the app, and couldn't see the upgrade list.

Figured I'd call in and just make sure that I was where I was supposed to be on the list. I explained to the lady who answered the phone that the website was showing “Upgrade Eligible” rather than “Upgrade Requested”—and that’s where it started to get very strange.

I suggested that it was probably a website glitch, and that everything was fine, but she said “Oh no, you’re not eligible for an upgrade. I can check to see if there’s a higher fare available that you could purchase, but with this ticket, you’re not eligible for an upgrade.” (It’s a T fare, BTW, purchased from the Delta website.) “You’re on an international fare, so you’re not eligible for an upgrade.”

At that point, I was just looking for a polite opportunity to tell her my call waiting was going off and I would have to call back, when she said “Even if you were going to Hawaii, you wouldn’t be eligible for an upgrade.” At which point I politely mentioned that, had I been going to Hawaii, I understood that I wouldn’t be eligible for an upgrade, but since my destination was actually the Caribbean, that I was, indeed eligible for a complimentary medallion upgrade.

My knowledge of Delta arcana must have dazzled her back into consciousness, and a few keystrokes later, she saw that somehow there was a block on the upgrade. “You must have checked the ‘Don’t request upgrade’ box when you bought the ticket,” She explained. Yes, that must have been it.

Thanked her, and ended the call. But my name still wasn’t showing up on the upgrade list. Called back. Explained what had just happened to a guy named Bob who looked at the account and said “Hmm. That’s weird. Let me make a call.”

Puts me on hold, 5 minutes later comes back and says “Are you near a computer? The IT guys think if we uncheck you in, and you check in again, it should work. I was, we did, it did.

Three takeaways from this story:

1) Delta really should train all of their elite CS agents on upgrade rules.
2) Don’t assume it’s an IT glitch, and everything’s fine.
3) Good CS reps will admit when they don’t know why something is working, and call someone who does.