First Class Monetization, or FCM: The Definitive Thread
May 28, 2015, 9:10 am
#2386
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2008
Programs: Formaldehyde Medallion DL DieMiles
Posts: 12,646
Interesting. Someone in my office and I are flying DTW/DFW in August. He's FO and I'm diamond. We booked our tickets separately this morning, same flights and same fare class and paid the same for our tickets. Just looked at the buy up and it's over $500 for me to buy up to first class but yet he is on the same fare class and exact same flights and paid the same as I did and it's only $175 for him to buy up!!! WTH???? So now Delta isn't only making it harder for their most loyal flyers to get upgrades but they are charging them triple if they want to buy up from someone that flies over 100K fewer miles a year?????
If anything Delta should be offering a discount to their higher tier elites instead of charging them triple.
At least I got a lot better seat than he did (I have a C+ aisle which wasn't offered to him for free).
If anything Delta should be offering a discount to their higher tier elites instead of charging them triple.
At least I got a lot better seat than he did (I have a C+ aisle which wasn't offered to him for free).
VA Ave knows that you are familiar with the FC cabin. Your associate... probably less so.
Va Ave is no doubt trying to entice your associate to try his first hit of crack cocaine (figuratively), hoping to create another person with lust for all of the luxuries in FC.
Expect to see more future applications of all of the data DL is accumulating about us.
Selective pricing is only the beginning.
(Oh, and be prepared for someone to call you a liar with regard to the content of your post.
)
May 28, 2015, 10:56 am
#2387
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: missing YX more every day
Programs: Delta KM/PM/MM, Nexus, CLEAR, Sharriott Plat, IHG Plat, Hilton Gold, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,105
PFS from DEN/COS ?
Not surprising......................
Va Ave is no doubt trying to entice your associate to try his first hit of crack cocaine (figuratively), hoping to create another person with lust for all of the luxuries in FC.
Expect to see more future applications of all of the data DL is accumulating about us.
Selective pricing is only the beginning.
...............................
Va Ave is no doubt trying to entice your associate to try his first hit of crack cocaine (figuratively), hoping to create another person with lust for all of the luxuries in FC.
Expect to see more future applications of all of the data DL is accumulating about us.
Selective pricing is only the beginning.
...............................
.And I agree, SHIB, my crystal ball shows that if, for example, I prefer to connect in MSP, that routing will feature a slight surcharge, just for me.
And if my favorite seat is 2B, that seat selection will have a slight surcharge, just for me. "For your personalized enhanced enjoyment, . . ."
Maybe start a seat-swap meet-up thread.
May 28, 2015, 11:33 am
#2388
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Toledo, OH
Programs: Delta DM & MM, Hilton DM, Marriott gold, Hyatt Globalist, Alaska 75K, Wyndham Diamond,
Posts: 15,398
Not surprising.
VA Ave knows that you are familiar with the FC cabin. Your associate... probably less so.
Va Ave is no doubt trying to entice your associate to try his first hit of crack cocaine (figuratively), hoping to create another person with lust for all of the luxuries in FC.
Expect to see more future applications of all of the data DL is accumulating about us.
Selective pricing is only the beginning.
(Oh, and be prepared for someone to call you a liar with regard to the content of your post.)
VA Ave knows that you are familiar with the FC cabin. Your associate... probably less so.
Va Ave is no doubt trying to entice your associate to try his first hit of crack cocaine (figuratively), hoping to create another person with lust for all of the luxuries in FC.
Expect to see more future applications of all of the data DL is accumulating about us.
Selective pricing is only the beginning.
(Oh, and be prepared for someone to call you a liar with regard to the content of your post.
)
At least I have a good C+ seat if I don't clear. Seeing upgrades are getting to be harder and harder to get, I hope Delta doesn't start giving away C+ seats like they are FC seats--I will say that the past couple of months C+ seats have been a lot easier to get than they were last year. I have had good luck getting window or aisle C+ seats on flights booked just a week out where last year I could book a ticket a month out and a lot of times EC seats weren't available
May 28, 2015, 11:52 am
#2389
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: DUS
Programs: DL, HHonors, Bonvoy, Hyatt
Posts: 2,072
I sat next to a woman last Friday who upgraded a four leg r/t journey for only $100 because she was worried that there wouldn't be enough space for her dog in Y! I'm sure the free bag was of benefit to her as well. I explained to her that Delta Studio was free for her and, what she already thought was a bargain, became a steal!
Yesterday I took a 6am that had seats free just a day prior, but disappeared sometime that day. At first I thought it was last-minute FCM (I was offered a $179 buy-up at check-in), but afterwards I learned that there were cancelled flights the night before, so those last few in F might have been rolled over.
Yesterday I took a 6am that had seats free just a day prior, but disappeared sometime that day. At first I thought it was last-minute FCM (I was offered a $179 buy-up at check-in), but afterwards I learned that there were cancelled flights the night before, so those last few in F might have been rolled over.
May 28, 2015, 12:52 pm
#2390
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: LAX
Programs: DL DM, 2 MM; OW Emerald; MVP Gold 100k;Marriott/SPG LTPlat; HH Diamond
Posts: 968
Interesting. Someone in my office and I are flying DTW/DFW in August. He's FO and I'm diamond. We booked our tickets separately this morning, same flights and same fare class and paid the same for our tickets. Just looked at the buy up and it's over $500 for me to buy up to first class but yet he is on the same fare class and exact same flights and paid the same as I did and it's only $175 for him to buy up!!! WTH???? So now Delta isn't only making it harder for their most loyal flyers to get upgrades but they are charging them triple if they want to buy up from someone that flies over 100K fewer miles a year?????
If anything Delta should be offering a discount to their higher tier elites instead of charging them triple.
At least I got a lot better seat than he did (I have a C+ aisle which wasn't offered to him for free).
If anything Delta should be offering a discount to their higher tier elites instead of charging them triple.
At least I got a lot better seat than he did (I have a C+ aisle which wasn't offered to him for free).
May 28, 2015, 5:24 pm
#2391
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: PVU, SLC
Programs: DL Pork Medallion, PP, GE
Posts: 1,657
I've only been in coach a half dozen or so times in the past 22 months, due to missed upgrades (and it was almost always just one leg of a several-leg itinerary that I didn't make the UG). However, a little over a year ago my travel slowed down a whole lot. Since I'm a leisure traveler and a college student, I've never pursued status (but have done some MRs when on the cusp at the end of the year) but fly enough to have either FO or GM every year. Since my travel slowed down, I need more miles per flight to keep my status, but also have more disposable income to spend per flight, if that makes sense. In the past 12 months, all my flights have been paid F, with the exception of Valentine's/Presidents' Day weekend, when I took my fiancée on a surprise trip to NYC on an Amex companion certificate. I see a lot of chatter here with people wondering if DL is targeting certain markets or people or things like that. I have no insight into that, but most of my paid F (really G or A fares) have been very justifiable, with one or two being a bit of stretch (but I'll chalk those up to the "cocaine effect," or because flying down with my wife to visit her parents is a lot better when your up front in the CR9, rather than in the back). Other times it was either justifiable for the MQM/MQDs, or even just because I would have been stupid not to take it.
For example:
Last December I had to fly out to Buffalo. A red eye departure to BUF connecting in JFK on a 738 and a CR9, then my return was via ATL on an MD88 and a 757. Coach was $450 for the RT, and F was $600. I got to sleep in a nice seat on the 737, enjoyed a brand-spanking-new Endeavor CR9 (with power ports and winged headrests), an MD88 with the (at the time) brand new seat covers, and a 757 with a meal ATL-SLC. Had I not bought up, I'd have been in the back for everything but the 1 hour flight JFK-BUF. But I enjoyed space, power outlets, more comfort, meals, and of course the 150% bonus on miles.
For our honeymoon, booked using the "B or higher" method to get DL F and AF Y+ itineraries to CDG (and a good J buy up ex-CDG which was a treat). Coach on DL alone was something like $1600 per person. For $2200 we got F on DL, connected to AF in Y+, buy up to J on the AF return, and then connection home was in F on DL. So we had the baggage and weight increases, SP (since I would be FO by the time went on our honeymoon), comfort, nice buy-up to AF J, and the mileage boost.
And yesterday, just booked tickets to go to SJU to spend Christmas with my parents. Two weeks ago, for some reason, DL.com would only show me very pricey Y fares, or other high bucket economy tickets at around $1200/person. Then this week they started fluctuate from $800-$900. Finally when our timeshare dates were confirmed, the price had settled at around $900/person, and good C+ seats were already taken. Then I saw the G fares were $1214, and ended up buying those. C+ would have cost an additional $236 per person, so for almost the same cost, I got us confirmed F seats.
Bottom line: I don't fly as much as y'all. I don't have business meetings and last-minute fares and companies that pay for everything. So I do have a choice in the airline I fly, and the cabin I sit in. I choose DL because I like them, they go where I need to reliably, and at least recently, I've had really great luck at either getting affordable travel, or buying up to F for an affordable and justifiable amount. Who knows, maybe I'm just eating right out of their hand? Come to think of it, my first of many DL flights started 3 years ago; another airline canceled my expensive trip a week out, and the DL fares at that time were about a $20 between Y and F. I guess I really am an addict.
For example:
Last December I had to fly out to Buffalo. A red eye departure to BUF connecting in JFK on a 738 and a CR9, then my return was via ATL on an MD88 and a 757. Coach was $450 for the RT, and F was $600. I got to sleep in a nice seat on the 737, enjoyed a brand-spanking-new Endeavor CR9 (with power ports and winged headrests), an MD88 with the (at the time) brand new seat covers, and a 757 with a meal ATL-SLC. Had I not bought up, I'd have been in the back for everything but the 1 hour flight JFK-BUF. But I enjoyed space, power outlets, more comfort, meals, and of course the 150% bonus on miles.
For our honeymoon, booked using the "B or higher" method to get DL F and AF Y+ itineraries to CDG (and a good J buy up ex-CDG which was a treat). Coach on DL alone was something like $1600 per person. For $2200 we got F on DL, connected to AF in Y+, buy up to J on the AF return, and then connection home was in F on DL. So we had the baggage and weight increases, SP (since I would be FO by the time went on our honeymoon), comfort, nice buy-up to AF J, and the mileage boost.
And yesterday, just booked tickets to go to SJU to spend Christmas with my parents. Two weeks ago, for some reason, DL.com would only show me very pricey Y fares, or other high bucket economy tickets at around $1200/person. Then this week they started fluctuate from $800-$900. Finally when our timeshare dates were confirmed, the price had settled at around $900/person, and good C+ seats were already taken. Then I saw the G fares were $1214, and ended up buying those. C+ would have cost an additional $236 per person, so for almost the same cost, I got us confirmed F seats.
Bottom line: I don't fly as much as y'all. I don't have business meetings and last-minute fares and companies that pay for everything. So I do have a choice in the airline I fly, and the cabin I sit in. I choose DL because I like them, they go where I need to reliably, and at least recently, I've had really great luck at either getting affordable travel, or buying up to F for an affordable and justifiable amount. Who knows, maybe I'm just eating right out of their hand? Come to think of it, my first of many DL flights started 3 years ago; another airline canceled my expensive trip a week out, and the DL fares at that time were about a $20 between Y and F. I guess I really am an addict.
May 28, 2015, 6:26 pm
#2392
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2012
Location: MCO
Programs: AA, B6, DL, EK, EY, QR, SQ, UA, Amex Plat, Marriott Tit, HHonors Gold
Posts: 12,809
Something I've noticed as a non-status now on DL is that the cost difference to purchase the up fare is typically little more than double the added cost to purchase C+. In that case, I'll purchase the up fare every time.
May 28, 2015, 8:45 pm
#2393
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 245
Was offered $150 to upgrade to F on a SJC-MSP leg (about 3.5 hours flight time) which I thought was fairly reasonable. Ended up declining because the flight is very early AM and I have a window EC bulkhead seat with plans to sleep anyways
May 28, 2015, 8:58 pm
#2394
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: ATL
Programs: DL PM Reserve
Posts: 567
I've only been in coach a half dozen or so times in the past 22 months, due to missed upgrades (and it was almost always just one leg of a several-leg itinerary that I didn't make the UG). However, a little over a year ago my travel slowed down a whole lot. Since I'm a leisure traveler and a college student, I've never pursued status (but have done some MRs when on the cusp at the end of the year) but fly enough to have either FO or GM every year. Since my travel slowed down, I need more miles per flight to keep my status, but also have more disposable income to spend per flight, if that makes sense. In the past 12 months, all my flights have been paid F, with the exception of Valentine's/Presidents' Day weekend, when I took my fiancée on a surprise trip to NYC on an Amex companion certificate. I see a lot of chatter here with people wondering if DL is targeting certain markets or people or things like that. I have no insight into that, but most of my paid F (really G or A fares) have been very justifiable, with one or two being a bit of stretch (but I'll chalk those up to the "cocaine effect," or because flying down with my wife to visit her parents is a lot better when your up front in the CR9, rather than in the back). Other times it was either justifiable for the MQM/MQDs, or even just because I would have been stupid not to take it.
For example:
Last December I had to fly out to Buffalo. A red eye departure to BUF connecting in JFK on a 738 and a CR9, then my return was via ATL on an MD88 and a 757. Coach was $450 for the RT, and F was $600. I got to sleep in a nice seat on the 737, enjoyed a brand-spanking-new Endeavor CR9 (with power ports and winged headrests), an MD88 with the (at the time) brand new seat covers, and a 757 with a meal ATL-SLC. Had I not bought up, I'd have been in the back for everything but the 1 hour flight JFK-BUF. But I enjoyed space, power outlets, more comfort, meals, and of course the 150% bonus on miles.
For our honeymoon, booked using the "B or higher" method to get DL F and AF Y+ itineraries to CDG (and a good J buy up ex-CDG which was a treat). Coach on DL alone was something like $1600 per person. For $2200 we got F on DL, connected to AF in Y+, buy up to J on the AF return, and then connection home was in F on DL. So we had the baggage and weight increases, SP (since I would be FO by the time went on our honeymoon), comfort, nice buy-up to AF J, and the mileage boost.
And yesterday, just booked tickets to go to SJU to spend Christmas with my parents. Two weeks ago, for some reason, DL.com would only show me very pricey Y fares, or other high bucket economy tickets at around $1200/person. Then this week they started fluctuate from $800-$900. Finally when our timeshare dates were confirmed, the price had settled at around $900/person, and good C+ seats were already taken. Then I saw the G fares were $1214, and ended up buying those. C+ would have cost an additional $236 per person, so for almost the same cost, I got us confirmed F seats.
Bottom line: I don't fly as much as y'all. I don't have business meetings and last-minute fares and companies that pay for everything. So I do have a choice in the airline I fly, and the cabin I sit in. I choose DL because I like them, they go where I need to reliably, and at least recently, I've had really great luck at either getting affordable travel, or buying up to F for an affordable and justifiable amount. Who knows, maybe I'm just eating right out of their hand? Come to think of it, my first of many DL flights started 3 years ago; another airline canceled my expensive trip a week out, and the DL fares at that time were about a $20 between Y and F. I guess I really am an addict.
For example:
Last December I had to fly out to Buffalo. A red eye departure to BUF connecting in JFK on a 738 and a CR9, then my return was via ATL on an MD88 and a 757. Coach was $450 for the RT, and F was $600. I got to sleep in a nice seat on the 737, enjoyed a brand-spanking-new Endeavor CR9 (with power ports and winged headrests), an MD88 with the (at the time) brand new seat covers, and a 757 with a meal ATL-SLC. Had I not bought up, I'd have been in the back for everything but the 1 hour flight JFK-BUF. But I enjoyed space, power outlets, more comfort, meals, and of course the 150% bonus on miles.
For our honeymoon, booked using the "B or higher" method to get DL F and AF Y+ itineraries to CDG (and a good J buy up ex-CDG which was a treat). Coach on DL alone was something like $1600 per person. For $2200 we got F on DL, connected to AF in Y+, buy up to J on the AF return, and then connection home was in F on DL. So we had the baggage and weight increases, SP (since I would be FO by the time went on our honeymoon), comfort, nice buy-up to AF J, and the mileage boost.
And yesterday, just booked tickets to go to SJU to spend Christmas with my parents. Two weeks ago, for some reason, DL.com would only show me very pricey Y fares, or other high bucket economy tickets at around $1200/person. Then this week they started fluctuate from $800-$900. Finally when our timeshare dates were confirmed, the price had settled at around $900/person, and good C+ seats were already taken. Then I saw the G fares were $1214, and ended up buying those. C+ would have cost an additional $236 per person, so for almost the same cost, I got us confirmed F seats.
Bottom line: I don't fly as much as y'all. I don't have business meetings and last-minute fares and companies that pay for everything. So I do have a choice in the airline I fly, and the cabin I sit in. I choose DL because I like them, they go where I need to reliably, and at least recently, I've had really great luck at either getting affordable travel, or buying up to F for an affordable and justifiable amount. Who knows, maybe I'm just eating right out of their hand? Come to think of it, my first of many DL flights started 3 years ago; another airline canceled my expensive trip a week out, and the DL fares at that time were about a $20 between Y and F. I guess I really am an addict.
Nice try, but far too long of a post.
May 29, 2015, 6:19 am
#2395
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 245
As a side note, this flight has 52 people on the upgrade list! Jeepers. Still doesn't change my decision (even as scrappy GM in the middle of the pack) but definitely would have made he deal sweeter for those interested.
May 29, 2015, 6:36 am
#2396
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SLC
Programs: DL FO, KM, & 1.7MM; UA nothing; HH♦; National EE
Posts: 6,344
May 29, 2015, 1:59 pm
#2397
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: PVU, SLC
Programs: DL Pork Medallion, PP, GE
Posts: 1,657
However, I am from Texas, hence the vernacular.
May 29, 2015, 8:39 pm
#2398
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: IAH
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Ist-iest, Stariott Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 12,787
This is pretty common on UA as well if you venture into that forum, with non-MP members getting far cheaper buy up offers than MP elites.
May 29, 2015, 9:39 pm
#2399
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Toledo, OH
Programs: Delta DM & MM, Hilton DM, Marriott gold, Hyatt Globalist, Alaska 75K, Wyndham Diamond,
Posts: 15,398
Hopefully AA joins in and starts doing that. If they do I would gladly fly them in F on my DTW/MIA and DTW/DFW trips. The times are a lot better for me on MIA/DTW and if I am expected to pay to fly in the front cabin, no reason to be loyal to Delta if they aren't valuing a passengers loyalty.
May 30, 2015, 8:40 am
#2400
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: LAS
Programs: PA FT, TW Gold, NW/CO PE, VK Eagleflyer
Posts: 7,173
Hopefully AA joins in and starts doing that. If they do I would gladly fly them in F on my DTW/MIA and DTW/DFW trips. The times are a lot better for me on MIA/DTW and if I am expected to pay to fly in the front cabin, no reason to be loyal to Delta if they aren't valuing a passengers loyalty.