Originally Posted by
DeltaFan4Now
Perhaps J seat decreases were too severe? J on this date had cabin map-full a few weeks ahead of time.
Delta has always had relatively few b-class seats relative to its competitors (both American legacies and international competitors). I was quite shocked when they decided to reduce the number of seats with the rollout of the "suites". AA has at least 50% more b-class seats on average, and UA usually has nearly double.
I've always assumed this tied to Delta's strategy of focusing less on Tier 1 cities that would drive higher b-class rates (only Tier 1 cities they serve are NYC and arguably LA.. missing SFO, DC, ORD, MIA, HOU)... but still, the relative difference seems quite large to me.