Originally Posted by
Carl Johnson
The no-upgrade policy won't bring in more paying passengers, because paying passengers don't care about defining other people as Untermenschen and don't spend their time worrying about whether Untermenschen are in the same cabin with them.
It may not bring in more people paying J prices, but it may bring in more money via upgrades.
I've already bought up to K and used (old) SWUs 4 times when I would have bought X or V instead. 3 of the 4 times confirmed at booking, the fourth cleared at the gate. So far the UG lists I've seen have had around 2 people on them on average, so if DL went from giving BE away to K+SWU or K+mileage buy-ups, they're ahead.
I actually have no problem with this. My issue is that K+miles works out to be about the same price as B6, except B6 will confirm me in advance on any flight whereas DL has very limited inventory for UG. Once the 50% RDM reduction comes into play next year, DL will have no advantage to me in carrier selection.