Writing this from the Sky Club this is now the second time the exact same thing’s happened.
I contacted Delta a month in advance to apply a Regional Upgrade Certificate. They confirmed it was applied, nothing else needed. The day before the flight, I couldn’t check in. Support said I had to talk to a ticketing agent.
At the airport, the agent issued my boarding pass original seat, no upgrade. When I asked, they said they deleted the upgraded segment because it “didn’t have a seat.” Medallion line re-added it but nothing showed in the app.
At the gate, I wasn’t even on the First Class upgrade list. Nobody could fix it. Ended up flying my original seat with the certificate still marked “applied.”
At this point, I honestly think these upgrades are a scam benefit, zero consistency and zero accountability.