Displaying Fare Codes when on DL.com?
 

Lately i've been looking up the premium economy (W) fares on DL.com

However, when I run a trial booking of an AF/DL route it consistantly quotes an "A" fare (to my knowledge W, A, S were all PE fare codes upgradable on AF - until they took S away)

Anyway - where on blasted DL.com does it show the fare codes for the flights you're looking at?

FWIW the delta SMS rep told me the route IAD-CDG-IAD Apr 9-17 was pricing as $5000+ as a W fare, and I had the same flights on DL.com in front of me for $1151.00 - but the rep said that must be an "A" code. On expert flyer i've found two DL coded fares just over $1K - WKXP5US and WKXL5US.

Mass confusion.. can anyone decipher it?

Actually, AF/DL took away "A," not "S," as an upgradable fare from PV.

If you search by schedule, premium economy or higher, on dl.com, any AF flights that you find will allow you to upgrade from PV to J, assuming "O" inventory is available.

You can interactively confirm your own SWU upgrade online, providing 'O' is available??? How?

Indeed, now only W and S fares can be upgraded to business (O class). DL does not provide the booking class for premium economy fares, although if you select the "W class or higher" fares, then you are surely going to have a W or S (or higher) fare.

Upgrades can not be processed online. You have to do that with an informed DL agent. Many don't know the rules well, so insist on the W or S booking class, regardless of what they say.

DL.com does a horrible job showing fares. When purchasing look for a letter next to Economy. Should show for both DL and AF metal. If not, use ITA to do a dummy booking and look for the fare code/basis there.

I'll add that what people have reported success with is buying the DL W fare (one of which is priced like the AF A fare in most cases) and then calling in to have it upgraded. If the agent was seeing a much more expensive W fare, they were probably pulling the AF W fare or the wrong fare basis for a DL W fare. Using Matrix is a good way to see which carrier and fare basis are being used so you can request exactly that.

I would call up Delta and face the booking fee.

Be careful though with the W fares and booking on DL.com - I have fallen for that once. While the fare restrictions on AF for my selected dates and flights allow changes, etc. (against a fee), the respective DL-fare does not. I ended up with a non-changeable, non-refundable W ticket on DL that was more restrictive than a T-fare (which also was $1k cheaper).

There is no booking fee for PM's. What there is though is a big confusion of DL agents. Sometimes when they don't know what they are doing they cannot price an AF segment correctly on DL (especially the feeder flights to CDG when you're connecting) and put you in full Y. That is what bloats the fares past being ridiculous (like $5k for Economy).

One very talkative agent was communicating every step to me once: when she tried to book CDG-ATH she first tried it with a DL-coded flight number and there were issues, the price bloating from $1.5k to over 4k. She then looked that very same segment up under its AF-code and, voilá, back to $1,5k for the entire trip.

Was the DL W fare the same price as the fare you saw on airfrance.us? Generally DL will publish a W fare at the same price as AF's A fare, which is the restricted, discounted PV fare.

No the DL-W was slightly more expensive (around $100). However, me in my ignorance, thought I am "safer" when booking on DL.com. I was using ITA to price the thing out initially and then went to book it on DL.com.