The problem is this calculus will not bear out— at least I do not think it will. I know plenty of affluent flyers who simply will not pay the difference when they're the ones who have to cover it because the difference between an economy comfort product and a BE product is marginal.

The only justification is when one is flying on a high-level refundable economy ticket, and the difference is not that big. That is increasingly rare as well. More and more companies require their employees to fly in cheaper buckets or just buy new tickets rather than dealing with refundable or changeable.

What was interesting was I was told at the gate that only YMB fares were upgradeable on JFK-LAX, yet agents on the phone had told me my K fare was upgradeable.

I haven't seen anywhere where Delta published this, and, its kind of messed up for one of Delta's agents to tell me its upgradeable, and then to find out its not.

I don't care what policy is— I get pissed off when I am lied to about policy and buy a K fare which I think is upgradeable, when I can get the X for less and end up with the same product. To me, this exposes them to class action suit and I'll probably file just to be a dick, and because a good friend is a partner at a firm which handles this kind of .....

At the end of the day, Economy Comfort is a good enough product— and this is Delta's mistake. If it were comfort or BE, then of course 2/10 would upgrade at the numbers you say. But with economy comfort where I have no problem passing the .... out?

Your premium product is going to have a limit on its worth. Does it get me there faster? No. So all you are charging a markup for is marginal creature comfort on a 5hr30min flight.

Maybe $239 is too low depending on my fare. But don't match me to a full Business fare. Hell, one Delta phone agent even told me it wasn't just the cost difference, they were going to charge me the $200 change fee as well.

Thats batshit insane.

So, in a world where Delta is the only entity, they lost maybe 300-400 in revenue from me today when they let BE go out less than full.

What was it worth to me? I don't know? i get a nice meal, I feel special, I get the little tumi kit, and I get to lie flatter. But I slept the whole way including a ........ delay on the tarmac because they boarded late due an equipment change.

The flight was inoptimal because they could have had revenue from me.

So why not have an auction with people bidding on the open seats up until T-20, and then the top X bidders, X being the number of seats empty, with a minimum cost of Y per seat in BE?

And now look at the fact that Delta is not the only player in the game? JetBlue and Virgin's general product is similar to Delta Economy comfort, and cheaper, so why would I not switch to them? Costing Delta revenue.

At $2500/ticket for BE, if I've got 6 people I can fly private— and that's a better product.

So here's the deal—

Optimize your ....ing premium inventory, and get over the fact that more space and a better meal is worth X times more.

The service is getting me from A to B. Getting me there with better treatment, and more space, will never be worth more than the cost of the original service. Act accordingly, or youre going to be losing the type of customer who will be able to include 1st Class or BE airfare in their contracts.