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First Class Monetization, or FCM: The Definitive Thread

First Class Monetization, or FCM: The Definitive Thread

Old Mar 17, 2018, 6:48 pm
  #3901  
 
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Originally Posted by Zorak
Recently bought SJC-LAS-SJC for travel in April. Post-purchase the FCM offer was $52.xx each way, less than the difference in cost of buying F outright. This would probably be within my $/hr threshold for accepting on a longer flight, but not on a sub-1.5hr flight on an E75. Besides, 4 open seats on the map (yes, I know) for a Thursday midday outbound and wide open on the return, so I'll definitely gamble
My success rate for upgrades on this route as a Silver Medalion was 100%. As a DM you are probably at 120%.
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Old Mar 17, 2018, 6:56 pm
  #3902  
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Originally Posted by blaz
My success rate for upgrades on this route as a Silver Medalion was 100%. As a DM you are probably at 120%.
When they first introduced the route I routinely cleared at the DM window and it occasionally went out with empties in F. Doesn't seem quite that easy now, but I'll still save my $100 for the machines/tables
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Old Mar 17, 2018, 7:05 pm
  #3903  
 
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Originally Posted by Zorak
When they first introduced the route I routinely cleared at the DM window and it occasionally went out with empties in F. Doesn't seem quite that easy now, but I'll still save my $100 for the machines/tables
I routinely cleared days before the FO window. In most cases when looking at the seat map on the day of departure, economy was completely full and F had maybe one seat taken, so clearly they needed the Y seat for a non-elite. On multiple occasions we went out with half of the F cabin unoccupied, heck even C+ was half empty. Definitely save your $100.
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Old Mar 17, 2018, 7:09 pm
  #3904  
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Originally Posted by Zorak
Doesn't seem quite that easy now
A $52 buy-up offer isn't going to help the upgrade odds.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 2:07 pm
  #3905  
 
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For this morning's flight I was already upgraded on booking, 5 day window, with a confirmed seat, and last night upon checkin it offered me the opportunity to buy a FC seat for $203. Umm...
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 7:27 am
  #3906  
 
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I assume this is a fluke but has anyone else experienced the below?

I was in a middle seat in Y- for a flight on Friday on a B fare. I regularly check the app when this happens in hopes of something better coming up - and nothing was. Each time I opened the app, I received an F buy-up offer for $540 (a pretty high price considering 9 seats showing as available in F). This morning I saw that a good seat (exit row window) had opened up. I swapped seats and then went back to the trips page. When I went back to the trips page, the FCM offer went down to only $235.

I'm going to assume that this is just a fluke (pricing just happened to have been refreshed around the same time). But if not... that's pretty cruel of Delta (pricing F upgrades based on how miserable your Y seat is). Again, I'm assuming this is a coincidental fluke, but has anyone else seen this sort of behavior from the app?
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 2:48 pm
  #3907  
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PHL to MCO, over a month from now.

Difference between coach and FC RT was $318 before I hit the purchase button.
Chose coach and went to select seats. Was offered outbound (one-way) UG for $209.
Selected my C+ seats.
Exited and went back to confirm seat selections had stuck. (The first leg had not, BTW. The large number C+ seats that had been available 5 minutes prior were now greyed out.)
But now, over the course of 5 minutes, the UG differential for the outbound trip had increased to $290. Just a bit less than the difference between purchasing FC vs coach RT (for which none of the prices had changed)

Had to call to get my C+ seat reestablished on the first leg. Apparently, the DL IT system had spontaneously switched my C+ UG option selection to NO, even after allowing me to pick four seats (with only 3 of the 4 actually registering in the system).
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Old Apr 2, 2018, 7:06 pm
  #3908  
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Originally Posted by StayingHomeIsBetter
PHL to MCO, over a month from now.

Difference between coach and FC RT was $318 before I hit the purchase button.
Chose coach and went to select seats. Was offered outbound (one-way) UG for $209.
Selected my C+ seats.
Exited and went back to confirm seat selections had stuck. (The first leg had not, BTW. The large number C+ seats that had been available 5 minutes prior were now greyed out.)
But now, over the course of 5 minutes, the UG differential for the outbound trip had increased to $290. Just a bit less than the difference between purchasing FC vs coach RT (for which none of the prices had changed)

Had to call to get my C+ seat reestablished on the first leg. Apparently, the DL IT system had spontaneously switched my C+ UG option selection to NO, even after allowing me to pick four seats (with only 3 of the 4 actually registering in the system).
Existing coach ticket was $409.

Just went to check my seat assignments... FCM offer is now $406 each way.

Could buy FC ticket today, same itinerary, RT for $982.

Mr. Barnum now works on Va Ave.
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Old Apr 3, 2018, 12:05 am
  #3909  
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SEA-LAX, H fare, purchased thru Concur 6 days out

if I do a dummy booking I find an H fare, and P at a premium of $119, which is a bit more than I’d normally consider paying for this 2.5-hour flight; when I check My Trips, the app says $171 to upgrade

as an aside, corporate H is approx $30 less than what the app is asking for the same H seat, but that’s still less than the $52 difference that the FCM algorithm generated
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Old Apr 3, 2018, 7:06 pm
  #3910  
 
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MSP-BOI
T fare
$106.43
Accepted

I'd only ever seen pricey upsells before, but DL got me good on this one. The offer appeared a few weeks after booking, disappeared a few days before the T-5 upgrade window, then reappeared. After inventory went from 11 F seats open to 3 open, I jumped on it. Very reasonable for a 3-hour flight.

Ticket reissued into G class. Receipt e-mail shows "CMFT+ FRST SEG Upsell 99.00 USD" plus tax.
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Old Apr 13, 2018, 3:35 pm
  #3911  
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DL is showing me an offer for $106 iah-lga for Monday. Underlying Q fare (company bought the fare) so I'm guessing this is the actual fare difference. If this was mainline I'd probably bite but since it's an Embraer with 2-2 seating in Y and I have a handful of drink chits I can't really see the value.
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Old Apr 13, 2018, 4:15 pm
  #3912  
 
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Originally Posted by krazykanuck
DL is showing me an offer for $106 iah-lga for Monday. Underlying Q fare (company bought the fare) so I'm guessing this is the actual fare difference. If this was mainline I'd probably bite but since it's an Embraer with 2-2 seating in Y and I have a handful of drink chits I can't really see the value.
Anecdotal of course: but a colleague just started using this route on DL and he's reported that even as a Silver he's been upgraded and that the loads were very light in March. You might get a CPU. Personally, I would bite on this offer: it's about 2.5 to 3 hrs distance.
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Old Apr 13, 2018, 4:23 pm
  #3913  
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Originally Posted by CHOPCHOP767
Anecdotal of course: but a colleague just started using this route on DL and he's reported that even as a Silver he's been upgraded and that the loads were very light in March. You might get a CPU. Personally, I would bite on this offer: it's about 2.5 to 3 hrs distance.
Oh the irony of getting CPU as a silver is that the MQDs from this rt will push me over the threshold for silver from kettle status. I already have the MQMs.
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Old Apr 13, 2018, 7:53 pm
  #3914  
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Originally Posted by Zorak
Recently bought SJC-LAS-SJC for travel in April. Post-purchase the FCM offer was $52.xx each way, less than the difference in cost of buying F outright. This would probably be within my $/hr threshold for accepting on a longer flight, but not on a sub-1.5hr flight on an E75. Besides, 4 open seats on the map (yes, I know) for a Thursday midday outbound and wide open on the return, so I'll definitely gamble

$106 total is roughly (not quite exactly) the differential to A (booked T outbound, Q return) even though they are only selling first class P fares for my flight combination (for about $100 additional over the buy-up offer)
Well I just had my first miss on SJC-LAS yesterday. IIRC it remained F4 at the window, then was down to F2 the day before, and those last two disappeared overnight. The FCM offer went as high as $200+ (lol, no thanks) and came back down to $75.

The morning and evening flights had RU availability, so this seems like just an aberration.

(My Sunday return cleared into an entirely empty F cabin at the DM window.)
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Old Apr 15, 2018, 8:41 am
  #3915  
 
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How about this steal? It looks like it's a $793 Comfort+ upgrade one way... (once you click through it does actually show as an F upgrade - still outrageous but a little less obscene).

PS - is anyone else surprised/annoyed by the comma splice?


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