What is a V fare?
 

Delta FO here.

I book fares through my corporate engine, so I don't have a lot of flexibility with fare class, as the engine gives us the cheapest (read: sLUT fares).

I downloaded the free 5-day trial of Expert Flyer tonight and noticed there's "V" availability on one of the legs of my next flight. What does that mean? I already booked a seat in Q. I assume "V" is a fare class like any other, and has to be selected at the time of booking? The description said "domestic complimentary upgrades" or something of that sort.

Can someone in plain English (for a not-so-seasoned flyer) tell me what it means?

What is a V fare?
 

V is the complimentary medallion upgrade bucket. Your fare class will show this on your boarding pass and Sky Miles activity if you get the upgrade.

V is what you get when you're upgraded to FC.

Interesting. So on the outbound leg, there's zero "v" fares, but 6 seats open in first class. Does this mean nobody's getting upgraded?

This is for free elite upgrades. If you upgrade using miles or SWUs, the FC upgrade inventory bucket is G, Z for upgrades with miles or SWUs into business class.

As others have indicated, V is the inventory bucket for complimentary domestic FC upgrades. There are others (X, G, and Z) that DL uses as well for different purposes. Once the upgrade window opens, DL assigns any available V inventory to elites who are eligible to clear an upgrade at that time. It's possible there are more elites than upgrade inventory, in which case V will get depleted by those with the highest priority and the rest will either have to wait for more V to be released or go to the battlefield. It's also possible that there are fewer elites than available V inventory, in which case it will upgrade everyone who's eligible at the time and then have some V left over.

DL adjusts V inventory up and down depending on how many of the remaining FC seats it thinks it can sell. Some flights never have any V inventory available and only do upgrades at the gate. Others have plenty.

Careful when watching the seat map, seats might be sold but not assigned. If you see F6 V0, it means that DL is willing to sell 6 seats in FC, but isn't currently willing to give any of them away to elites within their upgrade windows.

Not necessarily.

But it does mean that DL management are hoping to sell 6 more FC tickets.

Or, six ersatz FC tickets in the A or P fare bucket, for as little as $50 more than a coach fare.

When they fail to sell all 6 FC seats, some PAX will get upgraded at the gate to fill the remaining FC seats.

If you are looking at a flight with 22 or more FC seats, holding back six seats is not all that unreasonable.

If you are looking at a flight with 12 FC seats, I'd call holding 6 seats back excessive.

Haha...this is exactly the case. 10 seats on a CRJ-900, with 6 open. 0 "V" inventory. Interesing.

What exactly is meant by a "battlefield upgrade?"

DL CRJ-900s have 12 FC or do you mean 10 empty seats unassigned according to the seat map? The beauty of EF is that you can see exactly how many seats remain unsold, up to 9. Counting open FC seats on the seating map is a notoriously inaccurate indication of FC availability.

To me a battlefield upgrade occurs after you board and are pulled up to FC by the GA or FA. This usually means you were at the top of the list with zero seats available when you boarded.

A gate upgrade, as the name implies, means you are cleared into FC by the GA before boarding, usually 30-40 minutes before departure.

When the V inventory opens (if at all) depends on all kinds of things. It depends on the route, it depends on how close it is to the upgrade window(s), how likely DL rev management feel they can sell the seats. right now DL are holding the seats in hopes they sell them, which is entirely reasonable because they are a business.... its what they do.

A battlefield upgrade is simply when you are on the upgrade list and have to wait to see if you get upgraded at the gate... its a battle on the battlefield :)

I think most of us use the term "battlefield upgrade" to mean an upgrade at the gate, not an upgrade after boarding.

Some may have already been upgraded. It just means that no one else is being given a free (as opposed to using miles or a SWU) upgrade at this time.

Exactly. Didn't clear at the window; at the airport watching the GIDS to see where you fall on the list, maybe playing the 'I'll wait to board' game.

"What is a V fare?" An endangered species on some routes:D

To be fair, I was upgraded @ my window on 3 of my last four legs and then got the BF on the other. I even SDC'd on the return and got the upgrade...so, that was 5/5 on segments upgraded.

Of course, SAN-PHX via LAX isn't exactly that big a deal considering how short those flights are.