Originally Posted by
ethernal
Well, I just did a test booking on the route mentioned by a poster above - and in this case it was clear that it was actually cheaper.
In fact, the pricing positioning was.. interesting. DCA-MIA round trip December 9 to December 16th (by order of price):
* Main Basic - $137
* Comfort Basic - $197
* Main Classic - $207
* Comfort Classic - $267
* Main Extra - $375
* Comfort Extra - $447
* First Classic - $1253
* First Extra - $1613
DL is telling you that a (middle) C+ seat is worth $10 less than a regular main seat 4-5 weeks out during shoulder season on a leisure route... Ooh "value"!
Or look at it as a steep $60 upgrade over main basic for the "basic" customer... Ooh "rip-off"!
I don't see any parties of two or more booking this.
Basic travelers, due to the inflexibility of the ticket, are not booking as far in advance as DM's and PM's who get the comp upgrades either, so not sure that matters much.
Still would be crazy in some situations to see a C+ seat map with 7 seats open including some windows and aisles, with 6 C+ basic secretly sold in the background, only to have the entire map get "X"ed out when the 7th C+ basic seat is sold. But I think DL will limit the number of basic C+ seats sold in advance to prevent high-school or small college basketball teams from booking up 12-18 seats for less than the cost of main.
Perhaps the average height and weight of middle C+ seat occupants increase slightly once this is rolled out system-wide. I can see the FT thread on that subject coming in 2026.