Originally Posted by
HongKonger
I didn't say it was a stated loyalty benefit.
They give you a nicer seat then treat you like crap when you get up there. How would you feel if the FA told you in front of the other passengers, "we're just giving you the seat, you don't get any of the food or drinks others in BE get." If it applies to drink why not food too? Would you like to eat the crappy Y meal while everyone else around you is enjoying (relatively) quality food and drink? (And for that matter, why should they allow you to recline your seat more than a Y seat?) That singling out of those who didn't pay embarrasses the passenger and is horrible customer service.
DL benefits from the op-up by not having to pay you cash for an IDB. If they're going to treat you like crap they should give you a choice--OP indicated he wasn't given any choice about his op-up. The agent should say, "Coach is full, so you can move up to BE for free, but you get the seat only and no other perk like the alcohol or good food or amenity pack." Then the pax has a chance to decline to be treated like crap and the agent can offer the poor treatment to some other sucker.
I understand that Delta will most often NOT upgrade folks from Y with special meal requests in their PNR. The reason? They say that they cannot serve the Y product (the catered special meal) in C.
They can't have it both ways - either you get the (full) C product or not. And apparently their rule is not to serve the Y product up front. I know this has come up before on the boards here, particularly peretaining to op-ups and special meals (ordered in Y).