I'm also only getting upgrade offers to EC. Was kind of disappointed after reading this thread as I am only a lowly kettle (4 segments in '14) to DL and was hoping for a juicy FC upgrade offer. Wonder why I'm only seeing EC; thinking maybe it's because my flight is two months out (mid-April). Any experiences that EC offers change to FC offers closer to the flight date?

Sorry, in advance, to any DL elites that may be offended by this; I'm guessing if you were in my shoes, you would be considering it as well.

Thanks,

Deliciously Orwellian newspeak....

I am on the fence... can upgrade to F a upcoming domestic flight for $255.00. Will I get the bonus MQM for upgrading?

I would call the DM line to seek confirmation that the ticket will show up in a GAP fare class. Iffy otherwise.

$463 is an awful lot of money to pay for SkyPriority.

I wonder what will happen when someone takes the offer and then complains that there's no FC.

I totally agree - false advertising.

Just bought 2 March JFK-MSP-DEN F tickets @$259pp.

Was that the total price of the ticket, or the buy-up charge?

That was total price for each First Class ticket.

First, congrats.

So, $518 had you purchased a RT ticket.

Seems very cheap for that long a trip.

Looks like VA Ave is going to offer bargain basement prices to satisfy that 70 to 80% paid FC ego promise.

I've upgraded two domestic flights this year (via the FCM Link on the My Reservation page) and both gave me the bonus MQM and also extra RDM because of the higher cost @:-)

Over time, passive Diamonds booking by habit will start to recognize that they almost never get upgraded any longer. Some of them will look elsewhere, either entirely to gain status on a different carrier, or just for some percentage of their flights. If a Diamond used to fly Delta all of the time and now flies Delta only 80% of the time because they will now consider price and convenience for each trip, that's lost revenue. It's also hard to measure that lost revenue and even harder for an analyst to figure out that the diminished elite benefits contributed significantly to its loss.

In other words, although 5% is better than 0%, for some travelers, it's not going to be enough to justify consistently overpaying and/or inconveniencing yourself for Delta flights. If Delta sells the seats for a true premium, then more power to it. Why give away for free what you can sell at a high price? But to pass out first class seats for upcharges that barely cover the lost bag fees is short sighted.

By the way, it's not 25% to 5%; it's 60% or more to 5%.

Recognizing that this is just one data point, JFK to DEN, RT in FC for $518 does not sound like a premium price.

It would be interesting to track how many surprising low FC seats folks are finding.

I get "upgrade to EC" offers all the time on FC tix I've bought. :rolleyes:

I agree with you, but... how many of these super cheap upgrades are really being offered? Do we have any numbers? I know people come to FT and post this stuff, but personally, I've never been offered an FC upgrade for <$200.


I just booked two SMF/LAX/MCO FC tix for $409/each/one way. OAK/LAX/MCO was even cheaper, but my SO didn't want to use OAK. I thought I had gotten a great deal, but $259 is amazing. (BTW, DL wanted 55k skypesos instead. Get real DL. I could use MR points at AmEx travel and still get a better deal than that.)

I regularly see G/A for $380-$420 on WAS<-->SEA