Originally Posted by
Zeeb
It doesn't really impact PMs or lower. In fact it is a slight benefit for PMs since anybody who was using the waiver to make DM will now be a DM and depending on fare class you could now be ahead of them on the upgrade list.
Yeah, this benefits PMs who purchase high fare classes and is roughly neutral for PMs who buy the lowest fare classes (and probably rarely get upgrades anyway). It hurts former DMs who will now be PMs and purchase cheap fare classes.
However, note that fare class isn't very well correlated with fare or the cost of tickets. You can see lots of low fare classes associated with expensive coach fares if you're a hub captive.