Actually, V is the last letter in the Delta management alphabet, that begins and ends like:

D..L..F..C..M....................P..A..X..B..F..U. .G..V

:D

V is for Victory?

Yes, I'll vote for that definition!

I'm currently #1 on the UG list for ATL-SLC with 4 seats open in F at T minus :45. Hopefully Shena won't show up this trip...

I think that all the responses here are correct but none of them apply to the OP. My understanding is that the "V" fare bucket is just the upgrade bucket. Medallions do see "V" (or, sometimes, other fare classes) as the fare when their coach tickets get upgraded but the "V" bucket isn't reserved for medallions.

Our corporate booking engine also sometimes shows the "V" bucket, which in my experience works exactly like Q-up or Y-up fares. Basically, you book a coach class ticket but get an immediate confirmed upgrade to first class, which has nothing to do with being an elite.

Just like Q-up and Y-up fares, however, you have to remember that this is still technically a coach class ticket, so that in the event of flight changes/irrops, you'll only be eligible for a coach seat on another flight.

By the way, you have to be careful with "V" tickets. On our corporate travel website, for instance, the entire roundtrip ticket can show up as a "V" ticket but the outbound leg is actually in coach while the return is in first. Each leg still shows the same "V" fare.

Man. Our corporate engine restricts to cheapest (read: sLUT) fares. Wish I had some flexibility.

I suspect that these are full Y fares that upgrade into FC if upgrade inventory is available at the time of ticketing for elites. The free elite upgrade from full Y books directly into V, just as elite free upgrades at the window for lower fare classes use V inventory.

Normally H-UP etc. fares (which might include Y-UP, but I haven't seen this is a while) give upgrades if available to anyone who purchases the fare and book into A or P (for the more expensive and unrestricted ones like B-UP).

Perhaps your -UP fares booking into V inventory are a special corporate deal that is part of the contract.

I don't think so. Full Y fares are unrestricted and V fares that I am seeing are all restricted fares.

I guess it's possible.

Normally there isn't a V fare, just V inventory, so unrestricted or not has nothing to do with it. Similarly, if you upgrade into business class using a SWU or miles, full Y or B or M all upgrade into V class, as would H Q K fares for a "domestic" segment marketed as business.

Does your corporate travel site really show you a V fare, for instance with a fare code looking something like V0A14XYUP, or does it just give tickets booked into the V inventory class with a different fare code not starting with the letter V?

The Delta forum term was always Gate Lottery before the merger.

I just pulled up the fare and it says "V FARE BASIS BK FARE TRAVEL"

The fare code, however, starts with either an M or a Q (for the sample one that I just pulled up), so this is an M-up or a Q-up ticket.

I've never looked at it this closely before, as booking through the corporate travel website/agent is merely an option and I usually have my assistant making business travel bookings for me anyway. I just knew that it was a coach fare ticket with, if available, an immediate confirmed first class upgrade.

Anyway, the point here is that this is what I think the OP was asking: the V fare that shows up on his corporate travel website is a coach fare with an immediate confirmed upgrade to first, if available, and has nothing to do with his elite status or lack thereof (like I mentioned earlier, I have the same V fare basis showing up on some legs where it can't book me into first and puts me in coach).

Sounds basically right, but I still suspect that the corporate contract is offering special whatever-UP fares that book into V class inventory rather than A or P as the publicly available whatever-UP fares seem to do. It would be less likely, from what I understand, that the corporate travel site is showing V to eligible elites when booking within their window would give the automatic free upgrade instantly.

Yep, it's possible, but I'm too lazy to dig deeper to figure out what's going on, which would be a very time consuming undertaking. It's kind of like sausage making: I don't care too much about everything that goes into it but do enjoy the final product.

I know for a fact that this isn't the case here as the same fares and choices are showing up even if the traveler has no status or the website/agent isn't aware that the traveler has airline status because his/her data isn't in the system.

"V" is a column header (Vendor). Booking Class will be under "BK".