US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Selling F Seats at the Gate

Had my first experience with this the other morning, flying West Palm to Philly. The agent announces the program, and tells anybody in the gate who might want to upgrade that seats are available, and for a hundred bucks, regardless of ticket type, they can buy one. It's credit card only, payable at the gate (all of a sudden they can do charges at the gate...how many times have you been sent back to the counter, being told they don't do that?). Anyway, we leave with 2 open seats in F, and 2 pilots up there, as well, in uniform, probably commuting to work, so it appears no takers. I overhear some business guys saying something about if they had known you could do that, they would have bought cheaper tickets, and conclude, rightly or wrongly, that anybody really interested in this sort of thing is probably invested in the elite level of a carrier's FF program, in which case, they would already have been upgraded.

I saw this last week too for the first time while waiting for the 6am MCO-CLT flight. The US Club in Orlando doesn't open until 0530 so I was already at the gate area early. The GA made an announcement that F seats were available to anybody on the flight for $50 (did not mention cash or credit). There were no takers for the 4 seats up front...

Just about then, 4 Marines in uniform arrived and sat opposite me. The GA came right over, asked for their BPs and said,"Let me try to find you better seats". He came back with F BPs for all of them! As I boarded, I made sure I thanked the GA for his initiative in recognizing our soldiers in uniform.

Right on. Let's hope there are a few more line agents with that kind of initiative.

After March 1 they will sell about 1 F seat per year using this method. Any elite member in coach should get that seat for free.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
I overhear some business guys saying something about if they had known you could do that, they would have bought cheaper tickets, and conclude, rightly or wrongly, that anybody really interested in this sort of thing is probably invested in the elite level of a carrier's FF program, in which case, they would already have been upgraded.</font>

Huh? Why would they have bought cheaper tickets? I know you didn't say it, but it doesn't make much sense to me ...

It was 3 guys, who, from the conversation, were from Philly, and appeared to be in the hotel business.There are a number of fares in the Florida markets, which don't require a Saturday stay, and yet are not upgradeable at time of purchase. Presumably, that's what they were talking about.

DL often whores out its F product.

Supposedly, paid upgrades happen only after all Medallion (elite pax) upgrade requests have been processed.

Do a search for SBUP in the DL Forum.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
... There are a number of fares in the Florida markets, which don't require a Saturday stay, and yet are not upgradeable at time of purchase. Presumably, that's what they were talking about. </font>

Really? I thought all domestic (paid) fares were upgradeable!?!

For their strategy to make much sense the alternate ticket would need to be $200 cheaper than the lowest upgradeable fare.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spiff:
DL often whores out its F product.

Supposedly, paid upgrades happen only after all Medallion (elite pax) upgrade requests have been processed.

Do a search for SBUP in the DL Forum.</font>

Is "whore" slang for "sell" now?

If I call Delta and say "I would like a roundtrip whore to LAX", will they know what I'm talking about?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JS:
Is "whore" slang for "sell" now?

If I call Delta and say "I would like a roundtrip whore to LAX", will they know what I'm talking about?</font>

No, "sell" occurs with all the traditional methods of acquiring a ticket.

"Whore out" refers to trying to get the cabin as full as possible with non-elites, non-paid-F, or non-F-awards.

DL will know what you're talking about if you offer to give them $50-150 (the price is usually listed someplace near the counter if SBUPs are being offered) to be "king for a day" or to "use FC".

BTW: flights are not whored out round-trip, just one way. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
It was 3 guys, who, from the conversation, were from Philly, and appeared to be in the hotel business.There are a number of fares in the Florida markets, which don't require a Saturday stay, and yet are not upgradeable at time of purchase. Presumably, that's what they were talking about. </font>

So they didn't screwed by US selling seats, just by the fact there was no reason for them to pay more to upgrade when they ticketed. That's kind of what I thought, but if you ask me it's always dumb to pay more just to confirm an upgrade ...