DL can't issue PDX-ATL-SJU in C
Perhaps this is a common thing on Delta, but I've never encountered it before. I used the website to book PDX-ATL-SJU r/t in F/C, and just before I hit the "buy" button, I noticed that the outbound ATL-SJU segment was in Economy, rather than "Business", so I called. After many minutes of holding, escalation, and so on, I was told "that segment [ATL-SJU] is sold out in Business". Well, fair enough. But then I looked up that flight independently, and of course it is completely empty in First/Business -- full inventory available, when booked from ATL. But PDX-SJU, not available. I tried all variations of multi-city bookings, etc -- no dice.
I called back, and said "I don't care what the price is, please book me in First from PDX-ATL-SJU". They couldn't, wouldn't, and seemed to think it was unreasonable of me to ask. They kept talking about how they can't book "point-to-point" flights.
In the 40 minutes or more this took me, I was able to pull up a (slightly less desirable) flight on American, PDX-DFW-SJU, in First for about the same price.
But what gives? Why couldn't they build an itinerary that used available inventory and sell me a ticket on it? I know I could do it with two separate PNRs, but why?