Originally Posted by
mwjr
So here's a question that I'm sure is probably pretty obvious.
When I go to buy a ticket on Delta.com, all I get are tickets in the lower fare classes - U, L, etc. But I've been reading about how higher fare tickets - Y, for example, - give passengers a higher likelihood of being upgraded. My problem: where do you find/buy those fares?
As MSPEconomist said, you can do an Advanced Search on delta.com and change the lowest fare class from V to (say) B or Y.
Another way would be to use the advanced booking codes of ITA Matrix (matrix.itasoftware.com). ITA often can find routing combinations that delta.com doesn't always show. Go there, click on the toggles underneath the origin and destination airports that say "advanced routing codes" and enter in the following:
dl+ /f bc=y
(or b, m, a, p, etc.)
dl+ = "one or more Delta flights" (so it won't return American, United, etc.)
/f bc=XXX = "limits the results to booking class XXX"
So your entry, using ATL and LAX as examples, would look like:
Origin: ATL
ARC: dl+ /f bc=y
Destination: LAX
ARC: dl+ /f bc=y
If you want to search for multiple classes, add a | (pipe command) between each bc= entry, like this:
dl+ /f bc=y|bc=b|bc=m
You can't book the flight directly from ITA, but you can use its results to do a search-by-schedule on delta.com or to call Delta's 800-number and speak to a human.