Originally Posted by
WillBarrett_68
But even earlier than that, Y tickets specifically were treated differently than all other coach buckets. They weren't just at the top of the fare class list, they were actually ahead of everything else. That is, the tie breakers were (simplified):
1) Y-bucket tickets
2) status
3) other non-Y coach buckets
that is, a FO on a Y ticket would get upgraded before a PM on a B.
I remember being the beneficiary of this on NW in the mid-aughts. As a brand new young business traveler without any status, I would often get told late on Friday afternoon to fly somewhere first thing Monday morning. I recall not even being able to get a seat assignment (flight was that full and I had no status for preferred seating), yet the NW boarding pass had some notation I didn't quite understand. I approached the GA asking about it, who said "Oh, that means you are on a full fare ticket" and exchanged what was just a seat request card to get through security with an F boarding pass on a DC-9. The monster was born at that point.
