Originally Posted by
kamadzu4
Appreciate all the responses. From a customer standpoint, it still seems dishonest to put a "Sold Out" message in the Delta One column for such itineraries. The other message - "Not Offered" - would be more accurate, though would also benefit from further clarification since the Delta One cabin does exist and is offered in general but not with this routing.
Your expectation of Delta's attention to detail here is not realistic. The website just isn't set up to distinguish between "lack of filed fare", "lack of inventory due to married segments", and "lack of inventory due to no seats". Unlike some other carriers (e.g. United), Delta paid their developers to expose a fare search which is fairly simplistic and just gives up when it can't find things easily (for example, you can buy XXX-ATL-HNL anyway by end-on-end constructing two fares, but Delta won't offer this without a stopover).
It's similar to the fact that...
Originally Posted by
kamadzu4
I’m still not sure I completely understand. If the issue is maximizing revenue, they can still sell XXX-ATL-HNL and price it such that it would be just as profitable (or more) than the ATL-HNL.
It's quite possible that it will never be profitable once you subtract the cost of paying someone to figure what that price should be and making sure it doesn't go too low.
At the end of the day, Delta does not want to sell a back-connect over ATL in D1 for anything other than a ludicrously high price that they think so few people will pay that they don't want to invest the time to market it.
This is a pattern I've noticed with Delta in general - they don't like to sell connections, especially ATL connections that don't make sense - and just heavily block inventory instead of trying to offer competitive prices. I assume it's because they make huge profits on ATL O&D and ATL spokes that are Delta captive, but whatever the reason it's a business choice by Delta where to invest resources to offer competitively profitable prices.
Originally Posted by
kamadzu4
I was looking for a date with acceptable pricing for Premium Select and confirmable upgrade space to Delta One with a regional upgrade certificate. The more options available, the more likely it is to find that unicorn.
Perhaps better for the RUC thread, but RUCs should clear based on per-segment availability. If you also can't route PS back through ATL though, that's another problem.