Originally Posted by
3Cforme
Th OP didn't document a last-minute buy-up - he cited a web effort to sell a higher fare at time of ticket purchase. Offering flexible fares and F cabins in addition to lowest fares is just smart. Every airline operating premium cabins wants to sell those seats. There's nothing sinister in that unless one thinks F is just upgrade class.
If we start seeing big numbers of F seats held back within two hours of departure, large numbers of elites traveling on upgrade-eligible tickets still waiting for upgrades, and non-elites buying $50 upgrades off of T fares at kiosk check in, then we have a confirmed dimunition of elite benefits. All three of those conditions must be met; after all, Delta has been selling gate upgrades of surplus F inventory for more than a decade - it's even part of the automated boarding routine at some GIDS-equipped stations.
The fact that they have had to create P fares, discounted 50 to 55% off the price of an F fare, in order to squeeze a few more revenue dollars out of FC, should be an indication that many regard DL's current FC product as only worthy of being upgrade class... a helluva a lot better than DL coach, but not worth twice what most people are willing to pay.
Yes, they have been selling at the gate upgrades for years. But they had not,
until now, attempted to make a sea change in the way they rewarded elites in order to make more seats available for paid upgrades.
For me, that is the crux of the matter. Many here bust their butts one year to qualify as an elite for the following year, only to see DL management make draconian changes in the benefits program in that following year. They have done this time and again.
Do they have the right to do it? Certainly... their 99% in favor of the airline T&Cs allow them to do so. But, it is right to do so? I, and many others, do not believe so.
FF programs are an interesting concept. The consumer pays for a year in advance (through the business he gives the airline) and the airline retains the right to change the product specs for what it will provide after final payment is delivered. And DL management have proven that they have sufficient disdain for the customer to take maximum advantage of this bizarre contractual system.
There are a number of threads on FT right now that indicate at least the start of a mood shift in the FF community (at least insofar as that community is represented here). It is my sense that the folks are starting to get tired of the DL management attitude of "We're big enough now to do anything we want to anyone and get away with it."
The galling hypocrisy of DL's advertising spiel, quoted in my signature line, says it all.