maokh

This happens a lot on delta flights .... its dumb.

Last year on a JFK-SEA, they were turning away people left and right from paid upgrades and flew out an almost empty first class. Apparently everyone had T class tickets or something to that effect, but who in their right mind is going to buy a $400 ticket when there's a perfectly good $200 inventory laying around?

Effectively, i watched delta agents turn away an easy grand in revenue...and im sure the food went to waste anyways.

eponymous_coward

Yeah, I think AS's policy on F (if you have $, we don't care what your fare class is, just pay up) makes more sense. VX is similar- pay flat fee, get the upgrade.

beckoa

Plus AS blocks the buy up until later on (gate?) for lower fare classes - a good hybrid IMO...

PDXOutbound

Just booked through American Express Planner with my MVPG number, no preferred seating, auto assigned seats and I called DL. DL agent says, no reciprocity for preferred seating. Went online, my MVPG number won't read as MVPG, just mileage plan and can't change to any preferred seats. <sigh>

Stuck in middle on three of four legs. Just odd.

Of course a call to MVPG desk, and they took care of it.

hgdf

That DL agent is wrong, DL & AS absolutely do have priority seating reciprocity. It's even a published benefit on the AS site. The problem is that right now the implementation is kinda screwy.

So far the only way I've found where it actually works properly during the online reservation process is when I book a AS segment as a DL codeshare from the DL site as a DL elite.

Many have reported getting priority seats by calling DL, so I would try again and if they still won't do it then complain to AS.

golfingboy

FWIW, it appears that AS elites can only pick preferred seatings during booking, but after that you will need to call either the Delta reservations line or MVPG desk... I couldn't view or pick preferred seats when I checked in a few hours ago for my flight to JFK tomorrow.

beckoa

Uh oh... bringing snow to NYC too

Hopefully this will be resolved soon, as its been an issue since at least October... and a fix IIRC was supposed to be out by late December.

golfingboy

Uh oh, maybe

Points Scrounger

Does Delta's Zone 1 include their Plats/Skyteam Elite Plus, as well as First Class? Seemed to be a lot more than 16 folks boarding before Zone 2 was called on my flight yesterday.

golfingboy

I believe Zone 1 is for FC and DL elites... Zone 2 is for all partner and SkyTeam elites...

hsmythe

Here's a status update for the "flip side" of this issue - ie, perks granted to DL elites booking on the AS website:

I'm currently MVP on AS and Gold elite on DL (equivalent to MVPG on AS). Last night I purchased a straight-forward itinerary on AlaskaAir.com (ie, no code-shares, no DL flights etc). I entered my DL elite number when prompted for a FF #. At the last step (the actual purchase confirmation) the following text was displayed in gold font at the top of the screen:

"Your Delta SkyMiles Elite status has been confirmed. There may be new seats available to you. Click "Change Seats" to view the updated seat map."

Presumably, this would give me full access to elite seating, but I cannot confirm since I was actually purchasing an F ticket. Also, this special message was not displayed when I executed an identical ticket purchase on AlaskaAir.com just a couple of weeks ago.

Some other comments on the reciprocal benefits issues:

- Some have commented in this thread that elite upgrades are fully automatic for DL elites -- this is false for DL (but was true for NW). When using Delta.com, DL elites must explicitly request an upgrade for each eligible segment. If you don't, you will not be added to the upgrade list - calling up your itinerary on Delta.com will show "Upgrade Requested" for each segment if you are actually on the list (or Confirmed once it clears).

- Based upon my experience with Delta I believe the DL IT implementation of the reciprocal upgrades promised "soon" or "this spring" will actually take place in late summer.

ANC

they should just completely stop giving a guess or time frame. They should say eventually "we will get around to this when we feel like it"

golfingboy

Today, I flew JFK-LAX, and we had an aircraft swap from the 75E to an Intl 763ER... When I arrived at the gate there were 28 Biz Elite seats open, and I asked the gate agent if they could give me an upgrade since all DL elites and paid passengers already have been confirmed a seat on this flight.

She called her supervisor and after 10 minutes of trying to figure out the rules, she said we do not upgrade AS elites, sorry.

When the boarding process began, there were still 8 seats open after all the "standby upgrades" were processed... Still no luck...

I hope AS is treating DL elites the same until the reciprocal system is in place...

In other words, trying to upgrade on a DL aircraft with a DL employee running the gate, your chances are near nil.

eponymous_coward

Precisely. I've gotten no love out of SLC- which is a nearly 100% (pre-merger) DL station.

golfingboy

A few days ago, I was able to select preferred seats on DL.com, but last Friday that feature stopped working... I have another trip on DL in March and I cannot select preferred seats online. Here comes another "ring" for the DL reservation center