Agremeister

So Delta has recently changed their domestic "comfort+" product to be a different booking sub-class than regular economy, and I'm curious what this means for earning in FlyingBlue.

For example, I'm currently booked to fly JFK-LAX in comfort+, which shows up as booking class W. According to FlyingBlue, this should theoretically earn 125% miles, but given that my round trip ticket was like $400, earning over 6,000 level miles for this flight has to be to good to be true, right?

Ditto

Is the actual booking class W? I just looked at delta website, and while it say "Delta Comfort+™ (W)", the fare rules indicates "FARE CODE - VRUSA0CJ" for the outbound, and XAUSA0CJ for the return, both earning 25%

irishguy28

It's not just theory. Earning in Flying Blue is determined solely on the booking subclass. The fare paid has nothing to do with earning (so long as it is not an industry/group travel/discount fare/staff travel ticket that, for other reasons, invalidates your ticket for mileage earning).

As Ditto has stated above, it seems that "Comfort+" can book into subclasses other than W (I suspect W is reserved for international premium economy, which is a forthcoming Delta product; this chimes with AF's fare structure, and Delta has been changing their fare structure to match that of AFKL; if you book Premium Economy on an Air France flight under its DL code from the DL website, you are booked in actual "W"). I just did a search for your routes, and "Comfort+ (W)" shows up as S subclass in this particular example if you click through and check the full fare rules.

Looking in the distant future, I can buy "Delta Comfort+ (W)" on your route for a much lower price (not as low as yours), but which book into X (and therefore only earn 25% in Flying Blue).

MSPeconomist

So far, DL is using W as the inventory class for free elite "upgrades" into C+.

Agremeister

So I thought I would post a little update here since I just returned from LA, and interestingly, for the JFK-LAX segment that just posted in my account I earned 3,074 miles which pretty much exactly matches the 125% earning amount W class earns. I'll keep you updated if anything changes, but if not this seems like a pretty big loophole considering the E+ upgrade was less than $100 at booking for a $290 roundtrip fare.

Ditto

Mind having a look at KLM website to see what booking class the milage was posted with?
It would seem that recently flights that included an upgrade are being posted with weird booking class accrual.

Agremeister

Yeah, it posted as a W fare with 125% earning exactly as stated on the DL earnings chart. No upgrade was involved here, I paid for comfort+ at booking and as this was a TCON flight there are no complimentary upgrades to Delta One.

MSPeconomist

This sounds like you purchased C+ seats while that was the DL system but flew after DL changed it to the W class and started calling it an upgrade. So the delta.dumb computer probably saw that you had paid for C+ and treated it as if you had paid an additional fare to upgrade into C+, just like DL treats domestic tickets where you pay for a FC upgrade before the day of departure.

Agremeister

Nope, booked this flight only about 2 weeks ago, with the specific intention of seeing if the new "W" class credited as such. If it might make a difference, I did do a same day change on the flight which may screwed something up.

Agremeister

Update, the second flight credited, also at 125% just as the first did and earned a total of 6,148 level miles for the round trip.

rfrn

Wow this really could be a sweet spot for FB level miles when doing US domestic flights. Esp if C+ prices remain only slightly above regular economy prices

PaulInTheSky

It's always true when you credit your flights into another program.

Best example:

AF PE credited to DL -> at least 150% status miles(MQMs) + elite bonus.
AF PE credited to AF -> from 100% and up, depending on the fare subclass + elite bonus
DL F(A/F) credited to AF -> 200% status miles and elite bonus miles depending on your statud\d
DL F(A/F) credited to DL -> 150% MQMs, and ridiculously MQD-based RDM being ussed.