Originally Posted by
sethb
There are people who are more likely to fly DL on those routes (or on other routes to gain status) if upgrades are available. Making upgrades available for those people would tend to increase revenues.
Most, perhaps all, of those people are unlikely to pay $1200 rather than $400 for a tcon round trip, so Delta isn't cannibalizing its own revenue by allowing upgrades. (Would you refrain from buying J if you had, say, about a 10% chance of a free upgrade?)
And you know this how? This is the second time that Delta has pulled DM's from complimentary upgrades on the prem transcons. I am guessing they have enough data and intell to suggest otherwise.
In using your example of say having a 10% chance of upgrading, it depends. I don't really think that is an accurate %. In all the transcons I flew after Delta reinstated upgrade status for DM's on the prem transcons, I would say my upgrade % was somewhere around 3 to 5%.