"The good news is, an IROP YUP/QUP passenger will be rebooked from F whenever available. I think it's very seldom that you will be put in Y. You can always ask to wait for the next available F seat."
Not based on my experience. Despite calling SMS, and being assured FC seats, they then rebooked us into coach...while continuing to process complimentary upgrades. The one agent actually paused to upgrade two people onto the flight WHILE we were trying to get her to book us on the flight. She then offered us coach.
"If you want to sit in First Class and pay the proper price for it, then you must specify that when you purchase."
What is the proper price? When booking, generally we paid at least 2-3x the amount of coach for the A fare. If that isn't the proper price, then Delta should explain that it isn't a first class ticket, and that they can revoke the seat at any time without compensation. How many people would buy that type of seat-lottery ticket? Maybe for 30% more, but not double or triple. I understand that our priority is lower than those who paid full freight first, but expect the airline to honor the reason why I forked over extra money. I have, in the past, bought incredibly cheap coach fares. Nobody said "that's not the proper price, so you're going to have to take the bus because of irreg ops." Similarly, I've paid for A fares, then they've sold upgrades at the gate, meaning that as Medallion members we would have upgraded free. Did I ask for a refund, and immediately buy a coach ticket? No, just figured that was the price I paid for a seat up front, rather than the chance to sit up front. After our experience, however, we haven't bothered to purchase an A fare--lost revenue.
"Getting a refund makes no sense; are you implying that if somebody bought a Y0BV fare in advance to be flexible, they should be entitled a refund to a lower fare when the actually fly?[/QUOTE]"
Absolutely not. That person made a choice, based on their desires, and paid the agreed upon cost. What we are implying is that Delta should not reap revenue based on an expectation, and then claim no responsibility. "Well, clearly you're naive enough to simply pay us a lot more to fly in coach." Okay, Massachusetts actually offers people the chance to be taxed at a HIGHER rate, completely voluntary, and there are some people who bite. So, I understand that Delta would find some people to willingly pay a premium without expectation of a first class seat. (If you are so inclined, please PM me, as I would like to do business with you).
Still, there are a number of simple solutions that would, as they say, get us to Yes. A few suggestions:
1) Offer to anybody in F a free "available at time of booking" upgrade in exchange for their F seat. If nobody is willing to accept, then the A fare person is told "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Here is your coupon for a guaranteed upgrade from any fare at time of booking"--using the same bucket as YBM upgrades at time of booking. My anger at being bumped wasn't that I had to sit in the back, it was that I paid a huge premium to do so, and then got attitude of "well, maybe if you weren't such a cheapskate and were on a full fare...." No soup for you, thanks for the cash.
2) (Get ready to flame me) Process some complimentary upgrades as "provisional." As a lowly silver, if I received one of these, I could use the priority security line. If the upgrade gets yanked at the gate because of irreg ops passengers who paid 3x what I did for my ticket...well, not necessarily happy but seems fair to me. Got something for nothing (well, my loyalty to the airline), and then lost it.
3) Computers. Seems fairly easy to program, so that when you buy an A fare, it captures the median coach fare at time of purchase, and you know what your refund would be if you lost your seat. Of course, this is not attractive because it puts it in your face, spurring the question: "Do I really want to shell out an extra $1200 for us to sit in F for a few hours."
If Delta (or FTers) engaged in lateral thinking for fifteen minutes, a reasonable solution could be reached. After a beer, I'm not in that kind of form....