--- title: Delta Denies Winning Curling Team Upgrade Request With Tweet description: Not even a gold medal can score you a free upgrade from Delta these days if you're the USA curling team. canonical: https://time.com/5175453/delta-denies-curling-team-upgrade/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-26T16:12:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-15T18:27:48.000Z og:title: Airline Denies Victorious Curling Team's Upgrade Request og:description: Not even a gold medal can score you a free upgrade these days og:url: https://time.com/5175453/delta-denies-curling-team-upgrade/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt880c5fdbabf1dfc9/698928cd4ee262c5db31100b/mens-curling-gold-celegration.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: USA Men's Curling og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Airline Denies Victorious Curling Team's Upgrade Request twitter:description: Not even a gold medal can score you a free upgrade these days twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt880c5fdbabf1dfc9/698928cd4ee262c5db31100b/mens-curling-gold-celegration.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Airline Denies Miraculously Victorious USA Curling Team's Upgrade Request by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:27 PM UTCPublished: Feb 26, 2018 4:12 PM UTC  Team United States reacts after defeating Sweden 10-7 to win the Curling Men's Gold Medal game on day fifteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Curling Centre on February 24, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea Team United States reacts after defeating Sweden 10-7 to win the Curling Men's Gold Medal game on day fifteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Curling Centre on February 24, 2018 in Gangneung, South KoreaRichard Heathcote - Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:27 PM UTCPublished: Feb 26, 2018 4:12 PM UTC Winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games comes with a lot of perks—respect, admiration, national pride— but not, apparently, upgraded seats on the trip home. Free upgrades are apparently harder to score than curling points. The [U.S. men’s curling team](http://time.com/5172172/curling-gold-medal-match/) scored an impressive upset at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, coming from behind to [capture the gold medal](http://time.com/5172172/curling-gold-medal-match/). After their smooth score of a “[five-ender in the eighth”](http://time.com/5174243/us-wins-curling-gold-wrong-medals/?iid=sr-link4) helped clinch an unexpected victory against Sweden, the team figured they may as well try their luck at scoring something arguably more valuable—first class upgrades for their long trip from PyeongChang back to the United States. USA Curling reached out to Delta Airlines via Twitter and asked them for a modest request—upgrades for the gold medal winners. > [](https://twitter.com/usacurl/status/967421801537069056) But Delta didn’t jump at the opportunity to let the curlers fly their medals home in style—and score some public relations points, too. While they welcomed the team aboard, they were going to have sit in coach. > [](https://twitter.com/Delta/status/967434827136884736) Naturally, the team accepted their defeat with grace, proving they are champions on and off the ice. > [](https://twitter.com/usacurl/status/967641801795428352) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5175453/delta-denies-curling-team-upgrade/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5175453/delta-denies-curling-team-upgrade/"},"headline":"Airline Denies Miraculously Victorious USA Curling Team's Upgrade Request","datePublished":"2018-02-26T16:12:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-15T18:27:48.000Z","description":"Not even a gold medal can score you a free upgrade these days","url":"https://time.com/5175453/delta-denies-curling-team-upgrade/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Winter Olympics","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt880c5fdbabf1dfc9/698928cd4ee262c5db31100b/mens-curling-gold-celegration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt880c5fdbabf1dfc9/698928cd4ee262c5db31100b/mens-curling-gold-celegration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"USA Men's Curling","caption":"USA Men's Curling","creditText":"Richard Heathcote - Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5175453/delta-denies-curling-team-upgrade/","name":"Airline Denies Miraculously Victorious USA Curling Team's Upgrade Request"}}]}] ```