5 Days Out - No Upgrade for Diamond ATL-JFK
 

I usually fly ATL-LGA rather than JFK, but I booked a flight to JFK for a trip in 5 days. I have yet to be auto-upgraded on a T fare. What are the chances that a Diamond (w. Amex Reserve) gets upgraded on this flight? I expect that a lot of international travelers fly this route due to the JFK connections, but am wondering what others' experiences are?

5 days out being a Tuesday? I would think pretty good.

Great! thanks!!

** Disclaimer -- I have no (zero) experience with that route. Just stating from my own experiences that PMs and DMs generally do pretty well on Tuesdays.

I think it's terrible news. NTW, do a serch for the word "upgrade" in titles only. That should tell you someting.

Just bad luck for the OP. On Tuesday the 22nd all ATL-JFK flights are showing upgrade seats available even today (upgrades already ran for Tuesday for DM/PM) except one. It means the OP is on the 950am flight which currently has 6 out of 12 seats open up front. Unfortunately the OP picked the smallest FC cabin on that route.

Chances are good you'll get the upgrade, OP. But you will probably have to sweat it out and get the upgrade at the gate.

-RM

thanks for checking for me - I really appreciate it.

This appears to be a route where DL is monetizing FC, so your UG may depend upon how many people buy a last minute M fare and decide that an additional $49 to bump you out of your FC seat is a good deal.

And, if they decide to pass on the buy-up, and select the M fare, the next page they see will offer them the buy-up a second time.

And, if they get curious and click on the buy-up but change their mind, Delta.com no longer allows them to go back to the page with the M fare... without starting over from the beginning. So, what the heck, they might as well follow through with the buy-up while they are there.

So... it looks like DL management is pretty eager to sell your DM AMEX Reserve UG seat to someone for $49 (versus the $540 additional the would have to pay for a full F fare).

Good luck, and post back to let us know how you make out.

Just to be clear, it isn't your seat until you get upgraded...

Another one of these threads... Seriously, you're diamond... You are aware that you aren't the only Diamond, right? Not to mention some peeps actually pay for first.

Edit: I flew two flights in coach today as a Diamond...Should have disclosed that earlier...goes to state of mind...

Can we have an Official, I didn't get an upgrade thread, this is getting ridiculous. Why do people keep starting new threads? No one is going o be upgraded every single time (even though so far I have ;) )

Or not (at least in this case). All six seats on the 0950 flight are either full fare F or full fare Y tickets with upgrades. Not a single P or monetized upgrade in this case.

Your theory doesnt get better just because you keep repeating it...

There you go again... disputing what I did not say.

I agree with you, I would have been wrong if I had said it. But I didn't say it. :rolleyes:

I made no assertions about how any of the 6 people already in FC on the 9:50 AM flight got there. Anyone reading my post with an open mind would recognize that.

My point was, with respect to the eight remaining seats, the OP is in competition with anyone who, after paying $389 for a last minute M fare, decides "What the hell, I'll pay $49 more for FC."

My point also was that DL is now holding back a disproportionate number of FC seats, when compared to its past trends, in order to sell those $49 UGs, and a larger number of those UGs would previously have been given out to elites at the windows.

In the original FC monetization thread, a number of folks said they would not object to DL more aggressively marketing FC fares, as long as they were not some sort of significantly discounted FC fare.

In this case, the coach fare is $400 AI, the P (buy-up) fare is $449, and the full F fare is $951. The P fare is discounted over 50% off of the full F fare.

So, yes, my theory remains that the P fare was created just so DL could price it just slightly above last minute higher coach fares, to suck in a few more dollars, and they are willing to disenchant as many elites as necessary to accomplish this.

And yes, they are a for-profit business, and they can run their business however they see fit, even if this means irritating some of their most frequent customers.

And yes, I will keep repeating this theory in order to stimulate dialog on this topic. It obviously worked in this case... or would have worked had you addressed what I actually said, rather than what it was convenient for you to allege that I said.

Fair point. But, I submit, the OP would have been more likely to already have the FC seat assignment in the pre-monetization days.

I agree... and let's make it a sticky.

It will help focus the attention when all of the Diamonds start screaming that they have been monetized out of their UGs.

A single focal point will more effectively concentrate the anger.