Originally Posted by
FlyBitcoin
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.
Comfort Basic books into the same booking classes as Comfort Classic (W and S) and does not have separate booking class like Main Basic (E). So they can't directly limit Comfort Basic seats available for purchase vs. Comfort Classic. However, looking at the fare filings on EF on DCA-MIA, the Comfort Basic fares all have advance purchase requirements of 14, 21, or 30 days. This means you can no longer purchase Comfort Basic fares on flights once you are less than 14 days out from them.
Note that since there are two bands of Comfort class fares corresponding to W and S inventory, the Comfort Basic fares are only cheaper than Main Classic when S inventory is open on flights. If there is only W bucket open, you will be bumped into the pricier band of Comfort fares and Comfort Basic looks to be slightly pricier than the corresponding Main Classic fares in this case. While the S class Comfort Basic fares look to typically be $5 less each-way than Main Classic, the W class ones look to be $5 more than corresponding Main Classic fare (as shown below with V basis one-way Main and Comfort fares). Fares with a '1' in 7th position of fare basis code are S class Comfort Basic and those with a '2' are W class Comfort Basic.
