Originally Posted by
DeltaFlyingProf
DLPhoenix, I am all with you on this one. But even if there was inventory, I've said it many times before, it is cheaper for me to get an award in F on a *A carrier!!
DL: You can pay $2400 for a chance of upgrade to B/E. Your chances are 1/10,000
*A: You can have today a guaranteed F seat for 100,000 miles (which I value at $2000)...
Me: Hmmmmm hard choice, hard choice.... Which one do I do? LOL No doubt I am not going for DL!!!! Bye bye DL! I have not flown a single paid DL ticket TATL in 4 years.....
But I guess, some people are sufficiently unconscious to go for choice 1 and DL is stupid enough to guarantee they will be furious later....
I would have loved to be in a position to use your approach.
My business trips are paid for with OPM, and in the industry I am working for they traditionaly pay coah + a small allowance for an upgradable fare. This precludes me from using mileage to purchase tickets.
I switched to Delta in 1998 since they had the most generous upgrade policy at the time.
Originally Posted by
FlyingUnderTheRadar
For some reason, I fail to understand some of the points put forth by some folks. I see a real sense of entitlement that is not deserved. If you really want to fly in FC buy *&%$ seat in FC. That is what one friends does (well his company). My director flies so much that he refuses to fly in coach and as a state employee can not buy a FC seat. So he either pays the necessary coach fare to get an immediate upgrade via status or ponies up the miles when necessary.
Personally I think the pay a little more for the ticket with a chance of upgrading is a dumb game. I played it once not quite by choice. Do not need to do that again - i.e waste money. That said I do not mind the at gate calls that there are open FC seats and if you wish to upgrade it will be $XX.
Oh yeah and if a seat in FC flies empty maybe that is a way for the airlines to say - if you want it pay for it. But we ain't giving it away for free anymore.
I do not feel I am entitled to a free upgrade, I feel that Delta went to far in correcting a situation where it was giving away too much.
I assume the ideal situation for Delta is that every passenger that can afford to pay for a BE seat paid for it, and any seat that was not paid for is occupied by a person that paid the highest premium possible, while some other medium yield coach passengers are sitting in coach seats that cost more than they would have cost with another airline because they had a hope to be upgraded.
In my case:
For a Monady to Friday PHX->Europe trip in two weeks the CO fare is $100 less than a Delta fare. A "B" class upgradable ticket on delta costs an extra $400.
I check with Delta for Z availability, If there is none available I book with CO and get similar SkyMiles and MQMs. If the Delta fare is similar to CO I purchase the lowest available fare on Delta.
I don't buy the upgradable fare in hope to get an upgrade because I have learned that Delta maintains a ceratin BE inventory for last minute reservations (They should those are high yield tickets) and
never release them for upgrades.
I don't insist on flying Delta since I know that some seats are released 24 hours before departure, but the upgradable fare at that time is more expensive than it would cost me to purchase an I fare today in other words I will never get an Upgrade if it was not available when I made my resrvation. There is therefore no incentive for me to fly Delta.
Bottom line: If your PMs have no incentive to fly your ailine for a no weekend stay trip you need to make some adjustments to your FF incentives.