Originally Posted by
ADLFO
... Love your ideas. The time factor would eliminate most of the fear of cannibalizing J revenue since most business trips are not planned that far in advance. Couple this with one or two phantom seats on flights where J isn't even close to full and I think DL would have a winner for both them and their pax.
I would prefer a model in which DMs can redeem real SWUs 90 days in advance, i.e., for leisure trips only (with or without family).
I am also open to an alternative where there would be Phantom upgrades and/or same day redemption for K+ fares. However, since I was never a NW Elite and never experienced them I am somewhat concerned about their potential to eat into some J and I revenue.
BTW, two weeks ago on a ATL-MAD-ATL, I noticed a nearly empty front cabin on the ATL-MAD, then on the MAD-ATL the plane was completely full however in the BE cabin ~50% of the passengers were either IRROPs or op-ups (I was one of them). If this situation is typical and I was at DL I would be seriously concerned about the weak % of TATL BE sales and try to generate more revenue from those empty BE seats.