soxfanndc

So yesterday I was scheduled for DCA-ATL-FLL in Y. (the ticket was either issued in V or T class.) DCA-ATL was delayed 1.5 hours but they notified me in time so they then re-booked me on DCA-CVG-FLL. I didn't clear the UG from CVG-FLL and was a bit surprised. I do NOT think UG is an "entitlement" so the world did not end b/c I had to ride in the class of service I'd purchased. What surprised me, though, was that when they re-issued my ticket from the fare class stayed the same. I was under the impression that in an IRROP they bumped your fare class up to bump you up on UG WL as a way of kinda saying "sorry about the inconvenience." The res agent said that they only change your fare class when your original fare class is no longer available but in my case, since there was still the V or T still available, the system did not do that.

It really wasn't a big deal at all and I actually had an empty seat next to me in EC so flight was great. Just thought I'd pass this along in case others thought, as I had, that they automatically change the fare basis on an IRROP re-issue. Happy holidays to everyone.

[BTW, I'm SO missing the "old system" of elite qualifying. I"m 46 miles short of Diamond (but my flight home today puts me over the mileage requirement) but about $2000 short of the spend..... It woulda been nice....]

Mr. Tickets

They are supposed to rebook you in to the same class that you were originally booked. In many cases, the original inventory is not available. Depending upon the agent, their degree of ambition and the possibility that they may have to have a supervisor have to oversell the inventory, it may get done in Y class inventory. It has been that way for quite some time.

tkey75

But also for a while now, an agent can oversell by giving a Y seat, but the system will still recognize your original booking class.

rylan

Even though you'd be booked in the same class, I thought the ticket was supposed to be flagged/coded as an irop and so get higher priority for things like upgrade, standby etc. My assumption is that when they re-did the upgrade priority to make things totally obscured with rankings, they probably screwed up or removed what used to be the high irop ranks that were above normal medallion upgrades.

Often1

Agents have never been supposed to rebook sub-Y tickets into Y. They just did it because they were either lazy or were pressed for time. This gave IRROPS pax a priority for which they did not pay and clearly caused a lot of other pax to complain.

DL appears to have put the boots to the practice, at least as a matter of routine.

Whether you like it depends literally on where you sit. Somebody is a winner and somebody is a loser.

xolinlevh

+1. I had an IRROP out of HPN earlier this year, was rebooked out of JFK in Y and jumped the upgrade list ^_^

jrl767

what I'm outlining below only works if "spend" refers to the AmEx waiver, not to your 2014 MQD

you could buy several refundable/changeable one-way tickets for flights you think you might take next year; then when your plans firm up, you can exchange them as needed for lower-cost (i.e., probably non-refundable) round-trips ... the spend will count toward the 2014 waiver; the 2015 MQDs will accumulate as you actually fly

MSPeconomist

It's also easy to spend about $2000 on MQMs this year; the price counts for MQDs. The MQMs rollover.

PHXflier

Today the Diamond line rebooked me on a new domestic itinerary due to a 3.5 h delay of one of the flights, and my V-class ticket remained V class. My #1 upgrade position on the original flight evaporated, and I was something like #10 for 3 seats available on the new flight... So yes, no "bumping up" due to IROPS anymore, it seems, and if your new flight is elite-heavy, then as a Diamond you are SOL with respect to upgrades.

beachmouse

Since sometimes 'pressed for time'=untangling the mess from a three hour full ground stop in ATL on a busy travel day in a way that rebooks as many passengers as quickly as possible in a vaguely acceptable way, the ability to force a fare class change kind of needs to stay in the system, even if it takes a supervisor override to do so.

Been there, had that happen in the name of only getting a 22 hour delay to my final destination when the next availability in my fare class for that destination would have been three days out. And which did not involve going from Florida to the UK by way of San Francisco when I was so not looking for a mileage run.

nichojo

No one has ever "jumped" the list due to the IROP. All that happened was that you were re-booked into Y, literally, Y which has the perk where you are top of the list. You didn't "jump" anyone, you just had a higher fare class.

Now they book you into your original class which does not come with that same luxury.

MSPeconomist

It's jumping the list relative to the fare the person actually paid.

ScrodmanFL

Just a couple weeks ago, I was rebooked as "Y" on my return trip home. I probably would have gotten the upgrade anyway but it certainly didn't hurt. I've had that happen several times this year (being rebooked as "Y") but have also had a few times when I was rebooked into the original fare class.

houserulz77

In the past year I have had two situations where I had a Y ticket (probably X/T) and when IROPS triggered the automated email/phone call, I logged into the app and discovered I was presented with five or six rebook options, several of which booked directly into F. I'm assuming these were routings where Y was sold-out.

In one case I went from PIT-LGA-MSY in Y (and way down on the upgrade list for both flights) to PIT-ATL-MSY in F (probably jumping a bunch of DMs, PMs and GMs in the process). The new routing also arrived an hour earlier.

In the other case I went from PIT-LGA-MCO in Y (and way down on the upgrade list for both flights) to the same routing, later flight LGA-MCO and rode up front the last segment. In this case I likely could have made the earlier connection, but for an hour I took the upgrade.

It seems that you can often weasel your way up front through IROPS. While this is good to know, DL's system should be sophisticated enough to do the following:
Pax 1 is FO on flight A, and is offered flight B because if IROPS. Pax 2 (1/x on the u/g list for flight B) gets u/ged to clear a spot in Y for Pax 1.

As it stands now, it seems like in the situation above, Pax 1 goes right into F and Pax 2 is now 1/(x-1) on the u/g list.

If three or four pax are rebooked into F, I can see how Pax 2 might perceive that Shena is in the house.