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Was Delta's A-Fare Holiday sale impacting Medallion Upgrades Over-hyped?
So was the uproar over Delta's fare-sale for cheap upgrades to FC over the holidays, and thus potetially reducing Medallion upgrades, over-hyped? Seems to me it was. I've been upgraded all four of my flights, my outbound flights as a Silver, my return flights as a Gold. CVG-LGA (Friday evening) was a BFUG. All other flights I cleared at the window. Heck, I've even been protected on a later flight in case I missconnect on my to ATL right now, and I was immediately upgraded on my protected flight to my final destination.
Seems the rebookings due to the winter storm are having an affect for some but I think the A-fare sale had little impact on Medallion upgrades. Did anyone else have similar (or different) experiences?
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So far I have not gotten any upgrades except one due to rebooking into Y for IROPs. Just made GM and expect not to get any upgrades for my upcoming flights too. So business as usual.
If not for the fare sale I probably still would not have gotten upgrades, as most of my flights still show plenty of availability in the F cabin. What annoys me is I would gladly have paid to upgrade to these A fares, but they wouldn't let me without paying a change fee.
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Cleared ATL-LGA last week at the Diamond window; LGA-ATL (for tomorrow) about 2 days out. When I went to switch my flight to JFK-ATL tonight to beat the storm, was cleared into J on the 767-300ER on the spot (flight was V9, rebooked at 11 am this morning).
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The comments and opinions expressed here are my own, and are not an official representation of Delta Air Lines.
Half the F cabin on my DFW-MSP flight on the 19th was occupied by a family of 6 who may have never been on a plane before, and there are at least 6 kids under age 12 in F on 2075 MCI-ATL today, so I'd say it was not over-hyped. I did clear ATL-DFW at the window, however. I was 75% as a FO over thanksgiving, but 25% on flights within the sale period.
I don't think there has yet been an uproar over FCM that has not been dramatically overhyped.
Is DL saying that Medallions cannot purchase these fares? Because if they are able to pull out a credit card to pay the upcharge on any product that dl sells, there is really no reason to ever have an uproar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbashow
Is DL saying that Medallions cannot purchase these fares? Because if they are able to pull out a credit card to pay the upcharge on any product that dl sells, there is really no reason to ever have an uproar
I personally wasn't but in the thread discussing the announcement of the FC sale, many Medallions were whining about it impacting upgrades. Many had already purchased their holiday travel too, claiming they would have bought the up-fares for the confirmed F and extra MQMs, but DL didn't announce the sale until late Nov/early Dec. And some called about paying the difference while having the change few waived but mixed success was reported there.
As for me ad my flights, I didn't notice any difference, even with the up-fare sale, so to me, much of the worry was over-hyped. Others may have had different experiences.
__________________ Life Happens 10 Yards at a Time New York Giants - Super Bowl XXI, XXV, XLII, & XLVI Champs
I firmly believe a business should be able to operate as they please. My whole criticism of the holiday T-UP fares was that Delta was shooting itself in the foot. There have been plenty of times during the holidays I have purchased full first class fares. I just couldn't understand why Delta would want to miss out on this revenue. I remember a couple of years ago paying out of the nose for an F ticket to LAS at the end of the year.
Is DL saying that Medallions cannot purchase these fares? Because if they are able to pull out a credit card to pay the upcharge on any product that dl sells, there is really no reason to ever have an uproar
blah blah blah, so monotinous
It probably did not impact that many business travellers because there was a significant reduction in the number in the last 3 weeks.
It is how the FCM proceeds in the new year that will determine how UG's go. The key will be if FCM is "cranked up". It had a significant impact on flights I took last year especially on the A319/320 where I no longer considered complimentary UG a benefit as a DM
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Well my unscientific survey of two other people who I know were traveling this holiday season both flew DL and both paid for FC... one of them noting that the upgrade was not much more expensive than paying for a checked bag, and it came with free checked bags.
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. <--- Grain of salt. Take with post as necessary.
Well it absolutely affected me: last Wednesday, JFK-MSP and MSP-PDX--both routes on which I have never *not* gotten the UG, either as FO or GM--had virtually no medallion UGs. In both cases the GA mentioned that First was full of paid F passengers. More power to DL, I suppose, but this is the first time flying the Wednesday before Christmas did not land me an UG.
Flew ATL-LAX 12/24 and flying LAX-ATL tomorrow. Both routes looked to have fairly empty F cabins a week ago and has the windows hit seemed to fill up, leading me to believe these were upgrades at the windows and regretting my decision to purchase the discounted fares as I could've received the upgrade for free.
Oh well, at least I'll get 150% and it was less than $100 more each way.
