DL ready to roll out 'F' buy up program
 

Surprised this hasn't posted yet...At today's Investors Day (Dec 15) Delta mentioned it is testing a first class upgrade buy-up program. The plan is to roll it out in the second quarter of 2011.

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

Further on there is more mention of the first class up-sells...with the goal of increasing the percentage of these sales.

That's it for specifics...Now as someone who reads the Continental One Pass board, this is a hot issue over there. Depending on what you read and who you believe, Continental's aggressive up-sell attempt has eaten away at upgrades - or it has had minimal effect. I would expect the responses over here, once it's rolled out system wide, to be similar.

The idea of up-sell, to me, means a chance to upgrade your just purchased coach class ticket to first class for a designated price. It also means a similar chance at time of check-in to pay for the upgrade again.

Here's a link to the specific page in the investors presenation:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External...xUeXBlPTI=&t=1

Let the fun begin.

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Delta

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Upsell is o.k. but only at check-in and after all reasonable Elite upgrades went through ... nothing like CO holding 1/2 of the seats and then selling them for cheap at check-in.
I hope SM realizes the potential impact of such a program on our loyalty.

+1

Presentation says "it is already being tested". Where ?

Actually it has:

Delta Investor Day Presentation

Slide 30 says the "up-sell" is currently in test phase.
I've never seen that. How is that proposed? How does it work, especially compared to comp upgrades?

+1 for me as well. the upgrades have kept me from jumping ship to United as well - my idea of pluses:

- 5+ day out upgrades
- wifi (although free wifi sucks, no bandwidth)
- skyclub that doesn't require me to pay for drinks


awards and intl upgrades are not really problems for me - i've always been able to find the right fare at the right time - and I dont fly intl enough to make too much of a difference.

Two ways... upgrade at the gate for $$$, and the website offers to upsell at the time of booking for $$$.

Well for all the people who say they want to protect the integrity of BE this is not far off that same argument. The discussions here should be fantastic. If you believe that premium BE cabins should not be diluted with free upgrades when not sold out then you should feel the same way about domestic cabins.

BTW, I think this is suicidal if they do it. UA has a pretty good program for free upgrades...not nearly as good as DL but if they take that away for everyone except DM's (lets face it, they are the only people who will get the few seats left) then I think DL will have a mass exodus on its hands. But that's just me.

Well, who knows how the upsell will work at DL. There is some debate about the actual impact on CO UG rates. It is hard to disaggregate the recent impact of CO buyup from route restructuring and increased hub to hub UA 1K traffic presence, i.e. for IAH to DEN the UG was a snap before Oct but it has definitely been harder/later since then. OTOH I have been UGd on UA equipment to SFO and LAX. I have only missed one upgrade on UA since the official harmonization.

Tomorrow I am flying CO from SJO IAH DEN. SJO to IAH was UGed at the 5 day Plat window, like both my flights down here. Nice BF'style acc on the 752. But IAH to DEN, nada, no F available. At least I will finish 3-4 on this itin which is good from my perspective because this one is a super cheap fare.

Then I have a DL itin to TUS of which one sector is upgradeable. So far, nada on that either.

They can't ask at the gate, unless all Medallions are already upgraded !

I guess it is possible not to release inventory for upgrades and peddle F-ups instead, but who gets to be asked ? B and M fares ?

Not to be a jerk, but why not? I'm not saying I want this to happen but why couldn't DL do it?

Is this something different from the option to upgrade to first for x dollars more that I see at the bottom of each flight option when I book online? Usually, I find that the price increase for BE or First isn't worth it to me.

Because I tell the GA that by rule they have to process Medallion upgrades before selling them to the general public.

What they can do is selling F tickets, not upgrades!