HongKonger

But he said he was trying to use a SWU, a perk DL gave him. And he sat in the back with empty seats up front. That means the SWU processing didn't work properly as he should have been close to #1 on the UG list and should have cleared if there were empty seats in F.

Why anyone would waste a SWU LGA-MSP is beyond me, but it's his to use as he pleases, and DL screwed him in a situation where he should have been able to use it.

motytrah

If you're ex NYC you have a number of airlines to choose from. If DL isn't cutting it switch. Send DL copies of the receipts of travel and send them a note why you switched. So long as folks put up with FCM and quip want first buy first this will be your reality.

I only fly F/J so the changes are generally in my favor, but the status program gives me few reasons to fly DL. I fly DL when it's a competitive fare. Sometimes that's DL, a lot of the time it ends up being AA.

Bicostal

The system isn't crappy from cost control / rebate perspectives. And as an expense account approver, the process works very quickly.

The other part I like is that when the flights cross ponds, they are up front and the connection to the gateway city is as well. Since I travel 75% international, no issue in the few times I don't get a medallion upgrade. Of course that's a policy not a process decision.

MSPeconomist

The problem with this is that technically you are requesting reimbursement for a ticket that was refunded rather than the ticket that you actually flew. Also, employers are increasingly demanding that boarding passes be submitted with reimbursement requests. If some processing the reimbursement looks carefully, they will see the paid FC fare codes even if the employer is OK with free upgrades (and not all employers even allow this--Target is an example).

bubbashow

The seats didn't go empty. They were filled, which with an SWU, it means most-likely paid F. OP didn't clear the list and sat in back.

jrl767

I'm retired USAF, spent the next 8+ years in the same HQ office as a contractor, currently working for another contractor supporting OSD; I fully understand and agree with this ...

while I believe the JFTR allows things like upfare at your own expense, I don't want to turn this into a debate about ethics (ploys such as purchasing a ticket on the preferred carrier to capture the receipt for reimbursement purposes, then cancelling within the 24-hour window and rebooking on one's own preferred carrier)

my first three post-AF employers all had reasonably liberal travel policies: I could book pretty much any flights that I wanted, as long as the airfare was within the corporate "preferred" window (generally no more than ~$75-100 over the lowest fare that the contract travel agency could document for the requested date/time)


"unpleasant" refers to anticipated lack of flexibility ... I won't be surprised to learn that I'll have to drive 80 miles for a 610am departure from BWI, because Southwest is charging $75 less than Delta out of DCA (30 miles) or IAD (18 miles)

pretty much everything that has come out of Corporate relating to the merger has touted the company's low cost structure ...

rylan

I guess I don't see how it would effect cost control or corp discounts/rebates since the original ticket is booked and paid for on the corp card. Any additional revenue would be a separate unrelated transaction (at least at my company).

Anyway, nice you can fly up front for tatl/tpac. We have similar policy... domestic in Y, intl >5hrs in J.

lsumegan

No, the system is crappy from an employee satisfaction/experience perspective. A quick process is not always the best process.

jrl767

see "unpleasant" above :-/

MSPeconomist

AFAIK when you up fare, the original ticket is cancelled and credited and then a totally new ticket is issued which is paid with the credit and the traveler's credit card. It's no different than the company purchasing a ticket for an employee and then cancelling the trip and the ticket. There would be no credit toward the corporate contract/rebates/discounts. It's as if the company ticket had never been purchased, although when the employee credits the old ticket to apply toward the new one, any corporate discount that appears in the fare shown on the ticket (and actually paid by the employer) would be factored into the credit for the old ticket, so that the employee's cost to up fare might be more than the cost from the same fare code purchased normally on delta.dumb.

HongKonger

Ah, I must have misunderstood the OP. In that case, shrug.

MSPeconomist

I understood OP to say that there were three empty FC seats shortly before boarding and that they were filled. My guess would be last minute SDCs with FC tickets, but depending on route, day of week, and time of day, three might be unlikely. So I'm still not convinced that the SWU was properly coded.

ADDED. I see in the OP that it was LGA-MSP on a Sunday but we don't know time of day or aircraft type. The last time I flew this route, there were a lot of A320s with only 12 FC seats being used. IME this route is tough for upgrades most of the time.

bubbashow

This route was tough before the merger on NW.

MSPeconomist

I remember that but I've always managed to get the upgrade. Still, it's noticeably worse on DL especially on aircraft where DL ripped out FC seats after the merger. The DC-9 (or A319/320) with 16 FC had a much "better" ratio that an A320 with only 12 FC.

FlyDeltaJets87

At least the A320 is going back up to 16 FC seats.