The BS is buying a high fare coach ticket and then Delta releasing and selling the discounted FC ticket after I purchase a coach fare at a higher price and at the same time not releasing FC seats for upgrade as part of their loyalty package has suggested will happen...

+1^

I've been reading this thread and I understand the general theory of the gripes, but this one I don't get. If you've been upgraded every flight to BUF for 14 years, sounds to me like a record-breaking success rate on upgrades that you should be ecstatic with Delta about.

I also don't understand why sitting in coach as a Platinum or Diamond is something to be ashamed of? I fly in coach all the time (no other choice on CRJ-200's and DHC Dash 8 turboprops), and I've never felt anything like "walk of shame".

I didn't get upgraded from AVP-ATL the other day on a CRJ-700, which I almost always get, but there were people who had bought first class tickets. Good for them.

It's interesting to me how different things matter to different fliers. For some perspective, I'm happy that I have ATL service at all from AVP. It was gone for a while and we could only get to DTW... big downsizing after NW merger and we lost CVG. Then when they added it back, and then upgraded the flight to a CRJ-700 with FC, that was even more cool. So whether I'm sitting in FC or not, the fact that Delta services my airport by flying to TWO cities.. and flying at the times that I need... that is the most important thing to me.

Not if DL keeps selling discount FC at the last minute. Doesn't matter how you qualified for status, 'cause no one's getting the upgrade still. Don't think TH's situation would have been any different.

I'm with you but I don't get the Pink Floyd reference. A better link might he:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpie7-lhok8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

For everyone citing economic theory, that's all fine and good. But most of you are dismissing the value of loyalty or at least are not giving much credit to it.

Random side-comparison: there is a weekend golf league that plays from August-November in the Midwest. Coveted tee times in August/September are held aside for this league at discounted prices even though they could be sold for 20% more. But in October/November when it's 45 degrees and windy as all hell, tee times that otherwise would be unused are filled by the same league.

I routinely choose to fly DL instead of buying the cheapest or most convenient flight each week in hopes of getting an upgrade. Sure, most of the time they'd sell my seat anyway, but I bet there's a decent number of times my seat would have gone out empty had I not been loyal.

I forgot to post this last month when I booked a ticket to IND. A few PHX-IND flights were showing $700+ for Y and $550 for F. In fact, PHX-IND on June 8 shows the same thing: the 7a PHX-MSP-IND and 1p PHX-SLC-IND departures show $635 for Y and $550 for F.

I've never seen this before. Is this common on DL?

+2 ^

You don't indicate when your return is. For Jun08-Jun10, I can't find F=$550, only K=$634 and P=$1081. Can't find any -UPs, yet don't know where to look without a return date.

What was the P fare when you bought the ticket?

What were the restrictions on the P fare vs the B fare.

Folks are too hung up on inventory codes and not what they are actually buying. A full B should have been refundable to buy the discounted coach.

It is supply and demand.

PHX-IND:

Pay-Y, Sit-Y, No-Change: KA00A0QH - $600
Pay-Y, Sit-Y, Change: HA00A0RJ - $1600
Pay-Y, Sit-F, No-Change: P as HA00UPNQ - $1100
Pay-Y, Sit-F, Change: P as MA00UPRQ - $2200
Pay F, Sit-F, No-Change: can't find one
Pay F, Sit-F, Change: F0 - $3000

Let the -UP A/P mess commence...

At the time of flight, I can see the mess. Someone buys a non-refundable B 3 days out expecting the EUA, then day-of-flight an H-UP comes up for less, and you (the purchaser who paid 2x-3x the cost) don't get the F seat.

Yet the reality is, DL is in this to make money, so I see this strategy working (short-term, can't speak on the long-term). Hold all EUAs until 24hrs, or even gate-control. Jack up prices (specifically in captive-markets) until (following market trends and historicals) you've sold as many high-fares as you can, then in the last 24-hrs dump the K's and H-UPs (to fill every seat).

The matrix has to reach the seventh-dimension, in sliding scales, yet I can see someone at DL saying... "cancel all early EUAs, if we sell a $1000 H-UP and upset a DM, or sell a $500 H-UP and upset an FO, it's cash-flow we wouldn't have gotten otherewise, and the seats are filling and there's no major defection, so just do it.". There's multiple-$ks of revenue in -UPs for each flight on the table, and DL thinks they're loosing that revenue to EUAs?

Or... they used to sell the unsold F seats after EUAs, now they're selling the unsold F seats before EUAs.

Or... it used to be the non-Elites would hope for empty seats they could buy-up to and the Elites expected EUAs, yet now the non-Elites are being courted for FCM and the Elites get what's left.

It's a game-of-chicken between the -UPs and the EUAs, and DL appears to think that the -UPs are winning.

Has it occurred to you that after you bought your fare, someone previously on a P had a schedule change which released the original P seat?

I was looking at a o/w PHX-IND. See below.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9...20606at349.png

Thanks for the parameters, did some more searches.

The best I can describe it... the search engine is searching by cabin seated, not cabin paid.

In a warped alternative reality named DL, for the above examples, I can understand how a HA00A0NA/$528 (non -UP, available on the 6:00am departure) is not available, while a HA00UPNQ/$550 (-UP) and MA00A0UG/$635 (non -UP) are available. The H-fare above is less expensive then the M-fare above, yet the H-fare -UP seats into F, while the M doesn't. The search engine is finding the lowest fare that seats in Y (M), and the lowest fare that seats in F (H-UP), yet through an anomoly... the F seating is less (because the H is less expensive then the M).

In the event that the lowest fare that seats into F is lower then the lowest fare that seats into Y, DL has two choices... auto-find a fare that seats into F that is higher then the lowest fare that seats into Y (which in this case would probably be an M-UP if available, with worst case being F0), or auto-create a fare in the highest bucket that seats into Y that is lower then the lowest fare that seats in F (which would probably be HA00A0NA).

In web logic, it's an anomolous event that doesn't have a coding solution implemented, either through a change of what's displayed, or the auto-adding into a fare bucket.

edit: or, put another way... the lowest fare available for a routing shouldn't be an -UP (The H-UP will jump just about any fare, maybe even a Y0). That might be the easiest way to get rid of this display anomoly.

You can take your petulance and autoinsert it in the oriface of your choosing... there was no P or A as far as I saw on the Delta site and my TA did not see one either. You need to take your business lessons elsewhere there son, as I am not in need of what you are selling... you can say a lot about the people on here, but I think most can agree that there is a strong majority of people who post on this website who have done pretty well for themselves in the great big business world and not many agree with your watercooler musings ... you somehow fancy yourself as being on this great island of understanding in a morass of knownothings... you may want to rethink that a bit before you roll with this schtick in the future...

no offense and stuff....

Last time I heard this one, I got in trouble for spending too much time at the bar at the Yacht Club....