localady

It's not just you... I think that a lot of people may have that exact same thought...

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Lestin up Jeff! To paraphrase Bill Clinton ... Its all about the upgrades stupid!!

Talk about killing the goose, this would do it for me . Interesting side note, the last 2 flights I had scheduled from ATL back to MCO never cleared ANY upgrades (as verified by a SkyClub agent) until the gate lottery. This also was the case on about 90% of the ATL/MCO flights those 2 days (a Thursday one week and a Friday the next). I wonder if these were part of the test???? Hummmmm I wonder.

Orange County Commuter

Where are we going? CO... Opps programis already in place there and folsk are unhappy.

UA... it's just a matter of time...

Seriously, there's always this "I am taking my toys and going home reaction" but at the same time you see the posters from the other ailines over here going "I just left XYZ for Delta"

Churn, churn, churn. Same $$ different passengers!

cfischer

Who knows, but CO is often holding back a significant number of seats until boarding and then offers upsell @ OLCI and Plats end up in the back. If DL is planning anything along these lines then
For next weekend I am already upgraded on 2 UA flights, but I still have a CO flight with > 50% F seats available and EUA not running I am sure I will make this upgrade for a Sunday early morning flight, but I dislike the idea.

indufan

I think you might miss some options. Another phase of competition is no travel or driving options. I spent a fair amount of the fall flying on trips that I could have fairly easily drove. Others get a disincentive to travel and choose things like teleconferencing instead.

I am deeply troubled by this. Domestic upgrades ARE the program for me. I have went a little bit out of my way to ensure DM status for next year. Will it be worth it now? I am a free market kind of guy, Delta can do what it wants and if it helps them, all the better but I am afraid it might not.

Oh then then there is the WN...who the traveling public loves but not so much the business traveler....why mostly because of upgrades. Without them, that just gives WN another advantage for a domestic market they already dominate.

N639DL

Can't wait. Hopefully the upgrades won't be too expensive because I'm definitely interested if they aren't outrageous.

javabytes

Don't be so quick to jump on the GA's. They can and do offer F seats for a fee even if Medallions are on the list. It's just that these passengers don't actually get the seats unless all medallions are upgraded. Look closely, you will see they are called "standby upgrades".

Suppose there are 10 empty F seats and 7 medallions on the upgrade list. They will be advertising standby upgrades for sale even if the Medallions haven't cleared yet, but the Medallions need not worry - they will be processed first, and the standby upgrade purchases processed after.

DL will often even do this if there were 10 empty F seats and 10 medallions on the list in case of a no-show or two. In the event that everyone shows, anyone who purchased a standby upgrade wouldn't actually be charged and they would sit in the back.

djf32

I flew from ATL to LGA a few weeks ago and noticed that they were selling upgrades for F at the gate. Cost was $75. I guess this was part of the test.

Maybe they targeted this flight because the upgrade list was 'light' as the plane went out with two empty F seats. Or do you think that this means that the ability to pay for an upgrade will only kick in after all Medallion upgrades have cleared?

Dieuwer

Sounds like my experience with US a couple months ago. For TYS-DCA I could buy an "upgrade" for $100 to F. Preposterous, since their ain't any F on a CRJ.

WScottsdaleInsider

This isn't anything new....

Same-day Standby Upgrades

The same-day standby upgrade option allows you to upgrade your flight for a small fee, provided space is available and your ticket is eligible. This option applies to specific flights and routings:
Within North America.
To/from Aruba, Bermuda, Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands), Montego Bay (Jamaica), Nassau (Bahamas), Providenciales (Turks and Caicos), Los Cabos (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico), and St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands)
Between Atlanta and Costa Rica, St. Maarten and St. Lucia
Between Cancun (Mexico)and Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis and Minneapolis

The following upgrade fees apply:
Traveling Fee
0 to 500 miles $50
501 to 1,000 miles $75
1,001 to 1,500 miles $100
1,501 to 2,000 miles $150
2,001 to 3,000 miles $225
3,001 miles and up $350

javabytes

This is not a new program. Flights that would otherwise go out with empty seats in F will sell standby upgrades at the gate, and none of these are processed until all Medallions have been upgraded. The speculation about today's event surrounds something more sinister/profitable, depending on your viewpoint.

RacingJunkie

They also mention they are "increasing" FC by 60% as well. If they really are increasing it, I can see them trying to upsell a few people at ticketing or at the gate. But how they do the process is another story that needs to be sorted out.

But just recently I bought a multi segment ticket for a trip in March, and the last leg SJU-ATL-SEA, I got bus/first for just an additional 70 bucks. I wish all my trips had that cheap of an option.

SpinzCity

>>>>>>The first mention of this was a bullet point to "Monetize First Class."

Leisure plats like me would jump ship pretty fast. I would save a lot of money by both not flying as obsessively as I do in order to maintain status, and also when I DO fly actually buying tickets at the lowest fare from other airlines - -I've been paying more to fly DL, particularly international.

MinnFlyBoy

Saw this happening in Nov on MCO-MSP. AT the 5 day window the F seats stayed until the day of flight with 16 seats still available. I would look using the one way purchase fares to see the availability and saw the purchase of one way fares $7xx and also the ability to upgrade to F by paying an additional $125.00. Also noticed it on LAS-MSP fares. It will definitely affect FF's and reduce inventory, in my opinion. I also believe they will have to make it affordavle for buying F. I remember buying F to LAS from MSP several times via NWA for $500 to 600 RT. Last time I checked it was $1400.

N615HL

DL take note, this has the potential to be bigger than "fake cheese"