Originally Posted by
busdriver11
I am confused about the upgrades to D1 being available when there is Z class inventory. What if there never is Z class available, but there are still plenty of open seats? Will they wait to upgrade to D1 within 24 hours, or leave those seats empty? I'm looking at flights that I purchased PS for, that have 25 seats open in D1. No doubt it will get fuller as time gets closer, however, I don't see many flights at all for that route that have Z class available. The route is SEA-AMS.
I also don't see any indication that I'm on the waitlist, though they claimed to have put me on there. Perhaps it's not something I can view. They also claimed that they put me on the waitlist for the second leg, AMS-NBO on KLM, and told me that I had to call Delta 24 hours before the flight to try to get upgraded on KLM. Is this accurate information that they gave me?
I wouldn't assume DL never opens Z on these flights. They might hold it back for flights further out, but I see quite a few flights with it open closer in. It's not unusual for them to hold back inventory on flights further out until they can better gauge demand on flights. SEA-AMS 50-day AP one-way Z fares go for $4140 - $4590 and 90-day AP Z fares go for $3640 - $3890 (there are no one-way Z fares with an AP of less than 50 days as shorter AP Z fares require roundtrip bookings to qualify for them). You either need an EF account or check using roundtrip fare searches to find flights with Z open closer-in than 50 days. As you can see from Google Flights pricing below, there are quite a few dates with Z bucket open on at least one of the two daily flights (when 50-day AP window opens in late May). At any rate, as I demonstrated a few posts upthread on the DTW-LHR route, it is possible for them to release upgrade inventory on a flight without there being Z bucket open.
You don't actually need an ExpertFlyer account to figure out the Z fare prices on a route. Just click on the cheaper fares showing on Google Flights to bring them up on delta.com and then check the booking class on them. The reason for the variability on the Z fare prices, in addition to different Z fares with different advance purchase requirements, is that there are slightly different fares for midweek travel (Tue-Wed) and other days of the week (Thu-Mon), as well as "High" and "Low" season fares ("H" and "L" in second position of fare basis codes). These are listed in the fare rules which can also be found on delta.com and don't require an ExpertFlyer account.
