So the only thing that will make you happy is for DL to not sell their premium product and give it away for loyalty?

DL has (almost) always offered a discounted F fare cheaper than the most unrestricted Y fares (Y,B,M).

This is insanity, and thank God it appears that it is going to end in some way.

There are more "elites" than there are premium seats on nearly every DL flight in the Sky.

+1. Buying F pretty much eliminates the need of the current SM program...

No, there needs to be some medium, except DL has gone too far with stripping benefits from elites. However, looking at your posts would suggest that you only want people who paid F to sit up there and stick everybody else in the back regardless of how much they pay or fly. That doesn't sound like much of a frequent flier program to me. Might as well not sell any F ahead of time and just auction it off at the gate to the highest bidder.

Every once in a while it seems like someone comes in here starts a thread called "Can I buy diamond status?" That person then gets incessantly flamed for a while. But there isn't one stated benefit that you can't now buy your way into one flight at a time.

Okay, maybe the "dedicated" customer service number, but on a few occasions I've accidently called the plebian number and it was answered faster than the diamond line generally is.

Please forgive my naivety
 

If you are truly a VERY frequent flyer, wouldn't your home airport ticket and gate agents "know who you are" and give you upgrades without standby lists and such?

Nope, unless they want to get b*tched at and reported by somebody else who is on the upgrade list that didn't clear because of it. Sure the agents may know what seat the person likes and assign them that one if they are going to clear, but its too obvious with the computer system to try to sneak someone in.

After reading many of bubbashow's posts through multiple related threads, all that I have to say is that it is a good thing that DL isn't as smart as bubbashow because if they were, they'd just do away with their FF program since it is obviously of no benefit to them.

So finally victim of FCM today. Was #3 on WL DL4 today JFK to sfo. 2 hours before flight it was J8, then 45 min to go check again I'm now #4 and all seats gone. Though all flights to sfo seem zeroed out today, was told no irrops. All JFK to sfo earlier today went as scheduled. Fcm?

Btw, was on H fare so must have 5-6 DMs in back. Odd for Sunday flight no?

Mark that thread and let's talk in a year =-). We will see who's vision is closer to the DL reality. Ask ANY UHV that you know and they will tell you the questions that DL has been asking. It is clear where everything is going.

Being that close to departure (within T-24) it is probably VDBs being offered F (furthered by your statement that all flights to SFO are zeroed out), SDCs from other flights to yours or something of the sort. Sure, someone could have bought those flights in FC via FCM rather than buying Y; however, VDBs or SDCs sound more like the case here...

Well JFK-SFO doesn't see FCM like other routes so FCM was almost certainly not the cause. JFK-SFO and JFK-LAX are protected by DL and sold as Business Elite so they don't offer discounted P fares on this route. A premium class ticket would run about $3k RT.

I would bet that it was a mix of things:
A) some people bought J since it is a Sunday and may need to be on the west coast for business Monday morning.
B) SDCs from DMs on higher fare classes
C) SWUs being cleared
D) VDBs from earlier flights being rebooked into J

I doubt they are VDB's. DL refuses to VDB me into F/J when I do as a DM, you're telling me 8 people VDB'd as DM's and they cleared into J?

But, could have been VDB into Y...

Why can't people understand that this is a route on which DL actually sells its premium cabin....yes....even 8 seats

Not if they don't want to get fired.

I'm only a lowly SM and I live at a station (MDW) where it's unlikely I'd ever get much higher than GM. But I really wish DL would allow K->P as a double purchase without a change fee. I'm one of those whose employer isn't allowed by client auditing to pay for P, so it's a real hassle for me and it leaves money on the table for DL.

I wouldn't do it often, but there are definitely routes where I'd do it if I was already looking at a K fare (or a WN Business Select fare) and not LUT and there was a reasonably priced discount P fare. MDW, however, doesn't seem to have any FCM type fares.