Longboater

Several reliable DL employees on another forum claim W is coming, along with a larger re-launching of D1 on the A350 with the 777 first in line to be retrofitted to match the A350 product. However, I believe that its more likely than not Y on the 777 becomes 3-4-3 as its the trend worldwide. When there are airlines such as CX strongly considering a move to ten abreast on the 777, and NH has already made such a move, it should speak volumes on where the market is going. Its not the late 1990s. The 777-200ER is pretty much an outmoded plane at this time due to fuel burn and the best way to make up for the excess fuel burn is to add seats.

Mountain Explorer

I love how people here always say "another forum" when everybody knows that you're talking about airliners.net

bennos

What exactly was rushed about AA's announcement? Those "several reports" are equivalent to "various rumors and conjecture". And I highly doubt DL would introduce a W cabin just because AA did... they've got the numbers (from JV sales with AF, VA, and VS) to know whether or not it would be worth the investment.

I'd love to see a DL W product... it would increase competition in the W market (thereby keeping downward pressure on W fares) and probably get me back on DL metal for at least some TPAC. (I doubt they'd have a product competitive with JL, though.) There's also the pending "why isn't C+ yet sold as a W fare internationally" question, for which an answer could be "because there will be a real W cabin coming". But we've been down this road twice before with FTers betting money on a W product in the next big announcement, and it happened neither time.

MSPeconomist

So when would it first appear in the air? How long does it take to change some seats in the 777 fleet, or are you guessing that this will be done when the new D1 seats are installed?

Of course, DL could announce that starting very soon, they have Premium Economy on all international longhaul routes using existing C+ seats: just take the attitude that it's a separate genuine Premium Economy class/cabin because we declare that it is. That would lead to a lot of customer complaints.

With both AA and DL moving in the Premium Economy direction, I wonder why UA isn't doing the same. OTOH UA has lots and lots of data about its Y+ offering over many years. Does UA know something that AA and DL do not?

Longboater

AA's announcement of W deliberately avoided addressing how upgrades would be handled. Some believe this is a step to where elites have to buy W in order to be upgraded to J. AA's social media indicated it would not affect upgrades. As it announcement avoided upgrades, and nothing official has been posted, its speculation that AA is in wait and see mode as how to sell W.

I have no clue if W will be announced this week but its absolutely inevitable that its coming to DL. DL/AA seem to be going down the path of WJBJ with a W product for those fliers left out of flying paid J on flights of a certain distance. UA, on the other hand, seems content to continue to install large sections of J, albeit with an outmoded product until the 77W is delivered in December, but it willing to bet on GS spending and 1K upgraders.

rylan

If intl W is coming to DL, I expect the experience to be primarily marketing hype and underwhelming in practice, akin to how C+ is now an 'upgrade'.

firstmob

Rumor is a CS-100 will be in Atlanta on Thursday!

jrkmsp

When the first A350 flies, in early 2017.

SJC ORD LDR

While I don't expect something new and innovative. I can see DL doing something that is pretty standard for int'l W.

bennos

Yeah, I followed that discussion... that doesn't make it rushed, though, just not publicly documented.

I personally don't mind "one class upgrade" requiring W to J. I don't mind missing the upgrade if I'm in W (ie: I'd be buying W anyway), and presumably there'd be less competition for J upgrades (I've never successfully cleared a gate waitlist). (I'd actually reconsider my decision not to chase DM status if this happened.) But I can see how others would lose out, and it's all hypothetical anyway.

RaflW

I'm not one of the bettors. But I am looking for late fall travel TATL, and considering W. Delta now sells AF W properly on their web site, and that is fairly new. As recently as last September (I think), AF W would show up on googleflights, but when you pushed it over to DL it'd reprice as F, for $1,000s more. No thanks.

Maybe DL doesn't care that much about head-to-head with AA, and I don't know what the JV terms are for Delta's bottom line if I book an AF W seat on DL ticket stock. But I think DL has to be watching AF's sales and wants in on the action.

I also think this is the reason DL didn't implement C+ as a fare class for international. The departure tax issue isn't worth it for what is just Y+4". It would be, and seamless (hah!) selling with AF/KL will matter too.

Maybe this will force KLM to upgrade their longhaul mid-cabins, too. Maybe.

And maybe this is fakeout #3. We'll see soon!

ATLMike1234

DL also owes us an announcement on what the new uniforms will look like...it's been about a year now since they announced that changes were coming, so it's probably about time that they will will be sharing some kind of news about that too.

Renes Points

They have updated the fare UG lists on Delta.dumb now to include W:

https://t.co/n4iRsPlGq9

MSPeconomist

(1) Priority of W class bookings may vary.

Does this mean that DL will be selling various W fares that really are different fare classes but we won't be able to see information about what we're buying?

bennos

What do you mean by "properly"? DL has been selling AF (and VS and VA) W fares for a couple of years now, though only when the corresponding lowest W fare bucket is available.

...which would apply to domestic travel, no? And the footnote on the W class sure sounds like how C+ "W" fares are actually tied to an underlying Y fare bucket. (Interesting that they're lower than Y/B/M when after all it's a "better" class of service.)