It's not just LAS routes, it's all vacation heavy routes. All Florida destination has been heavily FCM'd, especially in the winter and especially in Orlando.

I think you are deluding yourself. I buy a lot of FCM fares and most of them are on AA. The AA model just encourages more aggressive FCM from the beginning.

I know. See my post a few threads above about it being only $11 more for the MIA/DTW portion of my thanksgiving weekend flight. For some reason the DTW/MIA isn't FCM'd and first still has 12 of 16 seats open up front the day after Thanksgiving.

I'm really surprised Delta is still giving 150% mqm's on discounted first class fares as cheap as some of them have become. I know for the kettles who only fly a couple times a year it doesn't matter, but as much as I hate FCM, I look at some of the fares as cheaper than doing a mileage run, especially if I use the pay with miles option

Count me among those who partake in the FCM ;).

I didn't know AA was doing FCM as well.

If FCM is being used as heavilly on AA as it is on Delta, why wouldn't it make upgrades more scarce????

Last time I flew home LAX/DTW on a diamond I was number 7 on the upgrade list with first class full. And you have to have 125K miles to be diamond on Delta, only 90 or 100K to be EP on AA, so I would think there would be more higher tiers with American than Delta since their requirements aren't as rigid to get status.

With American though status is harder to earn. They don't have rollover miles and the type of credit card offers delta has for elite miles. But million mile status was a LOT easier to achieve on American than Delta up until a few years ago.

I booked at DTW to ORD fare for 12/30 coming home 1/1.

Only $99 RT between first and a T fare!

Normally when I see FCM for such a small amount it's usually a higher fare class purchased a week or two out, not one of the cheapest fare buckets.

I don't understand your point or why you think I'm deluding myself, my point was that AA has more seats to sell since there are more available because not all of their elites get unlimited upgrades.
On my last two AA flights, I was offered the opportunity to upgrade to First Class for a modest fee (which I availed myself of on one leg) when I did online check-in, I don't believe DL has moved to this yet (they just have the gate upgrades for non-elites if there's seats available). However, the reason they have the opportunity to offer FCM upgrades at check-in is because their lower-level elites do not get complimentary upgrades. By the same token though, if you're one of those lower level elites and have an upgrade instrument you want to use, it is easier to get upgraded in advance than Delta because you're not competing against every other elite, just the other lower level elites who are willing to pay for the upgrade with an instrument. I know there are some routes where upgrades are scarce on AA still, with lots of top level elites and/or lower level elites using instruments, but in my experience there are many more opportunities for upgrades on AA whether you're a low-level elite or a non-elite willing to pay.

But Delta is doing FCM BEFORE any elites clear. They don't start clearing DM's and PM's until 6 days out. A lot of the fares mentioned on here that are FCM are for flights more than 6 days out. And there are flights I have been on when I haven't cleared yet past the upgrade window where Delta has A/P discounted fares available the night before the flight when I haven'ty cleared yet.

I have seen Delta sell gate upgrades before at the gate and seen them advertised on the GID's board before but it's after all the elites have cleared. Problem is you are past security so for the free/priority bags won't help and you don't get the 50% bonus MQM's.

Sorry I wasn't clear, there is more than one approach to FCM.

1) Relatively inexpensive Y->F differentials, which as you point out DL offers as well as AA.

2) Space available upgrades in advance, US offers this where they offer non-elites upgrades for similar pricing to gate upgrades, supposedly these only clear close to the flight and only after elite upgrades.

3) Upgrades at Check-In (including online check-in 24 hours in advance) -> AA offers this and the differential can be even less than the Y->F differential. I don't believe DL offers this, and even if they did, there wouldn't be many flights where anything is available unless they tightened up upgrade inventory (which I'm not saying they couldn't or wouldn't do). One of the points I was trying to make is this is more lucrative for AA because they have more FC seats available to offer non-elites at check-in since their low-level elites don't get them without the benefit of an instrument.

4) Gate upgrades, as Delta and US offer for example. I think US is more generous in that they don't require certain fare classes for this. I have seen these offered on DL flights, but it's less common than on US flights in my experience.

DL does 1 and 4 that I am aware of. US does 1, 2, and 4. AA does 1, 3, and 4. Not too familiar with UA's policies, though I'm sure they offer 1 on some routes too and I thought I saw something about them starting to do 2 or 3 on certain routes.

I really don't care if Delta does numbers 2 to 4, providing all elites have cleared and they leave a couple seats open for elites who would SDC or get rebooekd due to an IROP's situation. I don't think anyone here would since it's not effecting their upgrade chances.

I know Delta's policy is to only allow upgrades to be purchased at the gate on the same fare class you can use miles for. If they still have seats available after those people (if any) take them up on the offer, I'd think they'd rather have the extra revenue than the seats going out empty.

If there are empty seats on International J, I wish delta would sell those at the gate. If it's an overnight flight with lie down seats I would be willing to pay $500 for the upgrade, but they are probably scared people would just risk buying them at the gate for that instead of paying the extra $4k+ RT

Oh, you mean the "KLM-model." :D

Taking Advantage of FCM
 

Traveling MCO-MSP RT in early December. Bought ticket on 10/28. Coach was $500-plus. F ticket (P/G) was not much more so I grabbed it for $750. Two days later I noticed the fare had dropped to $600 (A/G). Called DL and they issued a $150 refund to my AX.

The fare is now down to $550 (G/G). Interestingly if I were traveling a week later the G/G fare is $470.

Should I call now and get another $50 refund? Is there a limit to how many times DL will issue refunds under these circumstances?

Those fares should have been nonrefundable, so a refund should have incurred $200.00 penalty to receive a refund. That being the case, I would consider myself lucky and not push it.

This is not really FCM and may even belong with Shena, but...

Last night I sat next to a guy in FC that was on his 2nd flight ever, so was almost assuredly not a medallion. He paid for coach (and was not a nonrev or on a buddy pass), had a connection delay/cancel/miss, and was evidently either rebooked into FC and/or was cleared into it on standby. He was either the last or 2nd-to-last person on the plane, too. I don't have exact details as the guy was very much a newbie and wasn't entirely sure what had happened to him. He wasn't even aware he was in FC until he said something about this one having way more room than the first flight (his 1st flight ever), and I informed him.

The upgrade list had 25+ people on it.

First Class Monetization, or FCM: The Definitive Thread
 

I had the same thing happen to me on a ATL-RDU flight. Back of the bus was totally full, but a family had misconnected, and only way to have them sitting together was in F. Not a good policy IMO