Denal1

That was one of the points I was going to make. An air marshal isnt going to bump you from a window seat. Also, if it was row 7, there could have been an issue with an equip change....a 757 with 7 rows gets changed to 6 and then back to 7 casuing a few seats to seemingly open up in the computer because original occupants were reassigned etc.....

Also, do you know what seats the other 2 diamonds had...and did you see who was in "your" 4D seat...

adventureadam

In the alternative, what happens when someone with a paid F ticket shows up at the airport an hour before the flight?

"Oh sorry sir, we can't allow you to get on this flight because we gave a free upgrade to someone in coach?"

I have to admit, the thread title pulled me in, but now that I understand what happened (or at least part of it), it makes the OP a little less credible in my eyes. If I offer a friend who has ticket on the 20, my seats on the 50 yard line, and then come back 5 minutes later and say that I need the tickets back, I certainly haven't stolen the tickets (really!)

mbarreto

There's no pleasing some people...

MSPeconomist

I agree. Even though it was a gate upgrade, allowing this would seem to open the door to DL auctioning off upgrades to nonelites for cash at the gate and then booting out elites who had already been upgraded. An even worse extreme would be rescinding SWU or miles upgrades from those who had already paid much more for an upgradeable fare and picked flights where upgrades were available at the time of ticketing.

OHDL1

NO...You CAN SDC even if it puts the cabin in an oversold situation. It's if there is a reservation (Y1 etc) not if there is a seat.

OHDL1

How about providing your F seat number and flight number so, maybe, someone can check out the situation?

reed2x

I share your sentiment. The order in which pax could be booted down would most likely run from
complimentary medallion
mileage/swu
paying Y-UP
paying Full F

But in certain cases, the mileage upgrader may be paying more in dollar terms cash+miles than the Y-Up pax paying only cash.

And even-even worse would be if they take away the "instant upgrade" from those on y-up fares.

Tom Williams

I can confirm that being booted by a F SDC does not happen. I have tried it twice in the last year with a paid F ticket, no dice.

cestmoi123

No, because Delta promised to give me those SkyMiles if I flew the segment. In this case, Delta said, if space is available, we will allocate unsold First class seats using X formula. There's no indication they didn't obey that formula.

The appropriate analogy would be if Delta said "if you fly LGA-ORD, we will give you 1000 extra miles, if you pay for one of the 10 most expensive tickets on the plane." Then, they tell you "congrats, you have the 8th most expensive ticket, you're getting the 1k miles," but then come back a few minutes later and say "sorry, three people just bought tickets more expensive than yours, no bonus miles for you."

glbetrotter

I am 75-80% SAN based and know most SC agents very well. They are superb professionals, so it is very unlikely that they did anything wrong (they do not clear upgrades anyway, the GAs do). It may indeed be the case that GA began clearing too soon, but it should not matter: once an upgrade has been cleared, it should be considered a sold seat. The "pay Y, sit in Y" argument is perfectly fine as long as the upgrade is not processed at all. By that logic, any upgrades that clear at the window can also, in principle, be rescinded if a paid F customer shows up, and this should not be happening (unless Delta explicitly states that "any upgrade you get can be rescinded if someone pays.")

I was actually on the other side of the argument a few months ago (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-thoughts.html), saying that a couple FA seats should always be held as late as possible (check-in cut-off?) in case a paying customer shows up. Got a lot of grief from many people for that proposal, and yet now many are criticizing the OP for expecting the product that he actually got offered: a boarding pass is a fait accompli unless an irregular situation develops (and SDCs must not qualify, as some posters suggested).

OP, I feel for you, it should not have happened, but really, not the end of the world. It would be interesting to see what Delta says in response to your letter, please share when you get a response -- but, and this is purely personal opinion, I would not push for a specific compensation. After all, you did get what you paid for. There was a snafu, but not a disaster ...

adventureadam

DL really puts upgraded Ys ahead of a full-fare F-class passenger who arrives at the airport an hour before flight time? I'm not sure this is wise policy.

jsmith50

The difference here is that UGs clearing at window come out of a different fare class, upgrades clear from V inventory which is set prior to window opening, so those upgrades are removed from inventory at the time the seat is assigned. Gate UGs are a fill in and, yes, those seats do seem to remain eligible for purchase, perhaps this is a system glitch.

If you'd like to prove it to yourself, the next time you're at the gate and the board shows that F is full, call the medallion line and ask if you can buy a full fare F seat. I'm sitting in the gate at DTW right now getting ready to board DL 0005 to LAX, I was upgraded at window and the board here shows zero seats available in F. I just hung up the phone with the DM line asking if I could purchase a F seat on this flight that is leaving in 40 minutes (give or take, weather looks like it may push us back a few). The answer: for the low, low price of $1155.40 a seat is mine. If the board shows F is full, where is that seat coming from? Something is not quite right with this system where presumably if I purchase a full fare seat at the last minute, someone is going to get bumped!

DL-Don

The mystery is solved.

At 12:27 today, I sent the following e-mail to Richard Anderson:

================
Yesterday (11/13/2011) on DL 1248 (SAN-DTW) I was upgraded and a new
boarding pass was issued in the SAN SkyClub. 10 minutes later, the
SkyClub agent found me and told me that DL had now sold my seat and my
upgrade was rescinded. While I received special attention by the coach
FAs, I don't feel this situation was handled properly and due to apparent
extreme overbooking on all flights out of SAN yesterday I could not be
re-accommodated on other flights.

I am actually very surprised that the DL booking system allows a FC seat
to be sold once it has been given to another passenger and a boarding pass
printed. I believe appropriate compensation would be a one-class upgrade
certificate good on any flight, with any fare and confirmable at the time
of booking to make up for the embarrassment of this situation.

I am a Diamond, 4 million miler and a loyal DL customer for decades. My
Skymiles number is 0623******.

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

At 1:30, I received a phone call from a person who identified herself as Mr. Anderson's Executive Assistant. She apologized profusely to me and said this should have never happened to me.

Apparently, the reservations for 4 F passengers was canceled the day before by a travel agent. When the passengers showed up at the counter, and discovered their reservations had been canceled, the agent, against policy, took away the upgrades that had been issued and gave the 4 passengers back their seats. They should have been denied boarding given that F was now full and the reservations had been canceled.

She initially offered me 30,000 skymiles but when I pointed out my existing "pile" I had she thought that might not be appropriate and is now off working on the upgrade certificate I asked for. She is suppose to call me back later this afternoon.

In summary, this was all caused by a double employee screw-up. First the GA ran the upgrade list a little early and second, the agent at the counter put the passengers with the canceled reservations back on the flight.

More later.

AJDelvarno

A one-class anytime upgrade for “embarrassment?” Clearly, I am too passive a flyer…

vgb2001

Awesome handling of this particular situation by Delta though! ^