rwoman

With the international fleet, it seems like it has really varied how EC affected the rest of the plane. There was no impact on F/J seats, but the impact in Y seems to have really varied. For example, the 763's have tons of legroom at the bulkhead and do not appear to have affected the rest of the Y cabin. At the same time, the 764's have not-so-great legroom at the bulkhead and installing EC slightly affected room in the rest of the first part of the Y cabin...previously, I guess they had more room anyway, but now they are "standard" Y seats behind EC.

We'll see what happens!! I'm glad this will be an option througout the fleet!

StayingHomeIsBetter

I would not expect SMI to have the new seat maps in his center desk drawer.

On the other hand, I would expect that they are readily available somewhere on Virginia Ave.

If there is a delay in answering our questions about potential FC seat reductions (beyond SMI's 4-day vacation ), I would initially put a (semi-)positive spin on this. I would suspect that the initial information about intended reductions was correct, but that there are some "You're doing what?!?!? Are you crazy?!?!?!" discussions going on right now.

In spite of their past misbehavior and insensitivity to public opinion, I can't envision Virginia Ave putting Donald Sutherland on TV to brag about "more first class upgrades" only to be planning a few months later to pull FC seats out of the fleet.

Let's wait for a while to see what the final resolution is.

However, if the wait is protracted, I'll subscribe to the theory already posted elsewhere in this thread; i.e., no news tends to be bad news when it comes to long-unanswered questions to DL management.

======================================

Something seems to be afoot:

The original Reply 5 from airliners.net, which gave the fleet breakdown and the EC-related seat changes (including FC reductions), appears to have been pulled from the website.

Hmmmmm? Good sign? Or bad sign?

andymo99

StayingHomeIsBetter needs it now! And where is his "Have One On Us" coupon???

bennos

Yeah, the comparison with UA is interesting, especially if you've been following their forum regarding the "new" FFP. Basically, their equivalent of silver has lost access to E+ until T-24 (checkin) unless they pay. Compare against DL, which is effectively introducing a new product, so mostly not a loss for FO (except a handful of preferred seats being turned into EC so no longer selectable for free). Either way, silver is barely a status these days in the minds of the airline CEO.

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty positive change, with many potential gotchas in the details.

houserulz77

I pointed this out last night - I know we have some FTers that visit that site often - was hoping for some insight on what that might mean.

GUWonder

Even for domestic "Economy Comfort" seats, DL is going to charge money to most of its program elites for domestic "Economy Comfort" seats, and the charge is on a per segment basis.

With or without first class reductions, most DL elites will be subjected to a fee for even choosing domestic "Economy Comfort" seating. This is going to lead to more uncomfortable flights for DL elites and will squeeze more money out of their pockets and that of others.

Why invest money/time in being a DL elite who earns status from flying when the benefits of that status are for sale even to those who choose to fly the lowest OTA-advertised ticket fare regardless of carrier and never achieve any airline/alliance program elite status level.

When they go after the low-level elites, eventually they go after the high-level elites too.

Winkdaddy

I believe it was announced that DM, PM, GM would not pay any fee for domestic economy comfort and could select seats at time of purchase while FO would pay 50% of the fee. (so yes, FO's probably make up more then the rest of the elites combined, and if so Delta is charging "most" of its program elites) It is somewhat added incentive if you are a FO to shoot to become GM..

houserulz77

Hello Mr. HouseRulz77,

Sit back and enjoy more legroom.

Your seat is an important part of your trip. With that in mind, we are expanding our popular Economy Comfort™ product to our domestic flights. We already offer more First Class seats than any other U.S. airline, and by expanding Economy Comfort we'll offer you even more opportunities to select a premium seat.

Beginning next summer, you'll be able to enjoy complimentary access to Economy Comfort seats on all domestic Delta mainline flights and two–class regional jets. These seats will be located in the first three to five rows of the Economy cabin and will allow you to stretch out with up to four inches of extra legroom.

Economy Comfort seats can be selected at delta.com, airport kiosks and Delta reservations beginning in late spring 2012 for travel starting next summer.

So get ready to pick your seat. Then, sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.

GUWonder

It's probably a waste for most Silvers to invest money/time with DL to become Gold.

At $10 per segment for domestic "Economy Comfort", it would probably take most Silvers a lot more money/time to become Gold than to pay the charge for "Economy Comfort" when they want to select such seats domestically.

DL is primarily trying to squeeze more money out of more customers. Can't blame them for that -- it's working for them. At the expense of more and more customers.

Winkdaddy

Not to stray too far off topic, but I have always considered GOLD to be the best "value" status in the Delta program...many complain that Diamond status is nerfed compared to competitors, and the complaints about FO status is endless. But Golds get same day confirm, 100% bonus miles, sky priority, lounge access on intl flights, much better upgrades then FO, and now free access to domestic EC, etc...

just my 2 cents

FlytheTail

Bad sign. DL wanted the focus to be on the "good" without any negative distractions. Maybe some of the information posted wasn't correct, but based on the responses so far (or lack thereof), it seems to me like a reduction in F seats is likely. DL's track record on this forum is they're great announcing & discussing positives, but they go into hiding when the negatives come out.

Paddlenpedal

I guess I just don't really care too much either way, as long as the FC cabin is left alone. I could care less about the legroom, I care a WHOLE lot more about the width. All the legroom in the world is irrelevant, when the guy in 3A is spilling over into 3B.....

mdb

Likely - though I said I would wait to pass judgement, and I will, though I will Not be holding my breath.

bwallet

Again, if they are planning on reducing the number of FC seats, then why would the press release tout the number of FC seats in the different planes??? This is absurd worrying/complaining.

houserulz77

This is what I'm thinking. The touting of F seats in the press release makes it nearly impossible for them to have a way to explain a reduction in F seats to accommodate Y+. All of this conjecture of a reduction in F seats is based on a single post that no longer exists.

The way Y+ is being rolled out (only 3-5 rows) indicates its essentially a Medallion benefit. All of the "good-will" Delta gets for this perk will be instantly lost (and then some) if they remove F seats.