Just as another point of reference, I have experienced IROPs when on a P fare from LAX-MIA via ATL. I misconnected in ATL due to Wx and was offered the option to take the next MIA flight in Y since F was full and get a $200 voucher for the downgrade or take the flight about 3 hours later confirmed in F. I chose the voucher and Y seat and actually got pulled and moved up front by the GA as the door was closing as someone misconnected :) The GA told me that is the standard procedure for IROPs on a paid -up fare ticket. They are handled just as full F tickets are handled and $200 is the minimum compensation for being seated in a lower cabin if F is not available.

Knowing Delta, you are 100% telling the truth, but I have seen it pan out other ways and have even had it pan out poorly for me on a much more expensive A fare when I had the Gold year of Horror back during the Clinton years...

FCM got me this morning. I had to buy a few more tickets, yet again. When am I not in an airplane :rolleyes:?!

The difference wasn't much. It was buying that K fare or confirmed first...I chose to pay for first and sit up front on a 757 for my departing and connecting flight :). Plus, I got the MQM boost o.O!!! Oh and did I mentioned confirmed first? As opposed to waiting for the upgrade window or at the gate.

Screw playing around waiting on the upgrade window or at the gate on DCA-ATL-Left Coast. I'm not going to be that Diamond clanking to the back on a 757 boarding in ATL.

June 28: EWR - DTW

M fare 605. P fare 605. F seats left = 0.

How can they be selling a P if F seats = 0?

If you search for economy purchase for that day, it offers M at 605 and P at 605 for the 9 am, but the 9am is sold out for F.

I call it compensation for Monday's flight from SFO - JFK where EF and DL had 0 BE seats (even though the seat map was wide open), but at the gate, there were 23 gate upgrades to BE.

Just saying, RDU - BOS on a Sunday... Tall ships and Roger Waters = FCM?
http://imgbucket.info/th-oPNqP.jpg

How exactly has Delta changed the game here? Some 5 years ago, long before anyone had ever heard of the term "first class monetization" I was regularly able to buy first class tickets on AA DFW-LGA (probably the most elite-heavy business route on the AA route map) for $10 each way more than the going coach fare.

FCM: it's neither new nor just a Delta thing.

That isn't really FCM. An M fare is nearly full fare price for econ plus it earns 1.5x MQM. $605 for a one way first class ticket on a short hop like that is actually very expensive. What was the price for a TULKQetc fare? I bet it was a lot less than $605.

It's inevitable that for very full flights close to the departure date that the only economy fares left are very expensive and would be close to (or the same) as first class). That isn't FCM. FCM is when the are selling FC seats at low or mid tier coach prices.

People always seem to point out that First is selling the same as Coach right before or day of travel, but it's more likely that those first seats have always been that price from the start, and as economy fares get booked, the price of economy goes up and up.

I've got no problem with a business setting their price for a product but I take exception with advertising a benefit (UG) incentive related to my patronage of that product that is all but gone with the latest pricing strategies.

They won't miss me or many of us but sticking around, flying an extra leg or two while paying a little extra no longer makes much sense.

Just thankful I'm not captive like many of you ATL peeps...

You're not and neither are most people in ATL. I fly in to ATL all the time and you know what every time I'm there I see tons of non-DL metal on the field.

If you hate the hometown airline you only make it easier for them to hurl perceived abuses your way by refusing to take OA and a connection. Don't gripe about being "captive" vote with your dollars and fly the competition. Even at ATL, there's plenty of it.

I'm DFW based and I don't whine about being captive to AA. I fly DL instead on many trips.

FCM is when they sell FC seats for a very low premium over CC seats, in order to increase revenue (that's the "monetization" part) from those seats.

Sometimes doing that decreases revenue, but DL is apparently not (yet?) clever enough to avoid those cases.

Ya, but which coach class seats? There is a huge price range from the lowest coach fare to the highest. Every airline prices their full fare coach seats right around or above what discounted first sells for, and they have done that for a long time.

If a T fare is around $200 and P is showing at $600, no one is screaming about FCM. Then there's an example of an M fare at $600 which is the same as a P fare and suddenly it's FCM? First class was the same price all along, it's just that the coach class tickets kept moving up as inventory dropped.

First class pricing closer to the mid or lower fare classes are a much better example of FCM.

The cheapest coach class seats that are actually available for purchase. I don't care if T is $50 when there aren't any T seats available. If the lowest coach fare available is $600 and the lowest first class fare is $500, they're losing money on FCM. If the lowest first class fare is $700 and they get it (and that pax wouldn't have paid the usual $1700), then they're making money from FCM (at a cost of goodwill).

And...again....there are usually vastly different sets of restrictions on the two fares. By buying a restricted F class fare, you are losing a lot of flexibility that you would have with the coach fare that is more than F.

Far be it from me, though to point out the obvious when the smell of crazy is so thick in the air.