Looks like Delta has rolled out their "Monetize F Program" today
 

Take a look at this screenshot. Changes to the website seen today.

When clicking the upgrade your flight button, it brings up the dialog box seen on the left.

http://i56.tinypic.com/vii7ma.jpg

And the news here? You can upgrade a last minute B fare ticket to F for $85 more each way? Wow, what a deal.....$1500 for a FC ticket....not much to see here IMO

If they're limiting it to $85 each way on B fares, I have no problem with that!

Guess the website change is what i was pointing out...:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

It's been there for a while (off and on as they've enabled and disabled features working out bugs).

I think the whole "monitize F" program has to do with P fares. Look at what these are from DTW-LAX (900-1000RT), DTW-PHX(700-900RT), etc. That is a MARKED decline in the traditional F class fare. On some flights and some days, not bad at all to lock it up and not worry about the upgrade.

I just did a dummy booking to see the upgrade options. I did DTW-SAN for 2/18-21/11 and it showed fully refundable economy as more expensive by $200-300 than first/business. Is that normal? Isn't first/business fully refundable?

Nope, not always. Discount F can be non-refundable.

Exactly. Be careful when purchasing P fares because often times they are H Basis or M Basis and they will incur change fees and are not refundable. It all goes by the fare basis code so it is important to not be fooled by this. The other week when I flew to Vegas from MSP I got a P fare RT for $757 last minute and it was an HUP fare.

I just booked JFK to MIA for May 6 to May 8. The coach fare came to $222.00.

At the trip summary page a pop up asked if I wanted to switch to first/business for another $355.00.

Actually not a bad price for an A fare ticket ($567.00).

I'm thinking about it but as a DM I'm fairly confident JFK to MIA to JFK will get me the UG on a sLUT fare.

But doesn't A earn 150% MQM? Think of the miles, man :)

My belief is that the P fare was invented for the monetization effort.

In markets where DL is in the position to demand higher coach fares in the days before departure, it appears that DL puts on an P fare that is moderately above the Q, H, or M fare (and far below the full F fare) to entice the buy-up.

Someone who has already swallowed hard and decided to pay $900 for a ticket may well decide that another $59 for FC is only an incremental drop in the bucket.

For one itinerary I had been monitoring the bold face P fare in the pop-up (without taxes and fees) was less than the P fare you would get by going to the advanced search page. After taxes and fees, the two prices were identical, but the attention-getting bold face P fare was low balled, perhaps to more effectively get attention.

Of course to implement FC monetization successfully, DL must hold back more FC seats, not making them available at the UG windows as they did before.

Those folks who buy last minute tickets will tout this as an advantage to them, but the rest of us are going to be sitting in the back far more often.

If I am wrong, let someone from DL management come here and refute me. If that doesn't happen, everyone can judge the significance of the silence for themselves.

[BTW... For those who denigrate those of us up front on UGs, and who boast of their ability to buy FC, I hope your newbie, first time in FC, seatmate tries to drink up his $59 and behaves accordingly.]

Is everyone else willing to accept this degradation of the SkyMiles benefits?

Which means, in the case of a IROP, you may be reminded that you do not have a FC ticket, you have a coach ticket with an UG and you are SOL.

... just like the A fare "first class ticket" ruse.

This is of course only true as long as DL's "monetization" experiment doesn't really work out. Once they figure out how to sell those seats, your upgrade chances are going to be decreasing readily (and, as I've said before, I've already seen this happen on the JFK-SFO route).

Believe me, dont think I havent thought about that. Its not an easy decision to make.

However, it would only be an extra 1000 MQM's for an additional $355.00

I can take that $355.00 and book JFK to SFO, get 5100 MQM's and still have money left over for a nice dinner.