elkapong

This basically kills the SDC program. The ability to SDC with just space available in the cabin was one of the biggest selling points for me on the DL program. I have used it countless times to take earlier flights when my work has finished early for the week (usually SDC'ing off an oversold flight onto an earlier flight with seats available). I view this as a positive for DL that saves VDB dollars from being paid. This will impact my decision making on whether or not to book DL in the future. Not that they care, but I hope the DL reps on FT read this post and the many, many to follow and realize the impact of this decision.

rylan

Its MUCH worse than that. Try anything buy premium Y/B flyers. Take a look at most of the routes, and you'll see that there is little if any inventory in lower buckets for the same day. If you're sitting with an H fare, you're going to get shut out also.

I hope DL sees their revenue from SDC drop considerable with this change, but I think its intended just to 'stick it' to GM+ elites.

CJKatl

I purchase a lot of last minute expensive fares, and have found DL seems to always make whatever exceptions I ask for that are reasonable, even as a lowly PM. I don't think that is likely to change on this one thing. Even when I don't ask, the exceptions are usually made. (Let us waive that fee, or if you hold on, I'll get permission to override and give you the 60k SM seats, eve though those aren't available.) I've even been on a flight where one other guy and me were moved to another airline - he was DM - while another guy was bellowing, "but I'm DM" to the GA.

Heck, they even gave me the details on the changes a couple hours ago when I called and asked. Then again, my customer value score was significantly higher than what most DMs reported when we were able to see them last month.

gooselee

Someone in the other thread also made the good point that right now, the availability of free SDC means that often pax are balancing out overbooked flights on their own, especially on elite-heavy routes, since they are taking seats that are currently unsold.

If SDC slows down/stops, and those seats remain unsold and unfilled, that increases the potential for the original flights being oversold and thus the potential for VDB/IDB.

I'm probably missing a ton of variables here...

At the end of the day, this would greatly reduce my motivation to make the push for GM this year. Seems like SDC would be mostly impossibly on my usual KLUT(VX) fares.

TurtleSVS

Yup, leisure travelers and commuters take it on the chin here. Really disappointed. I've only gotten to use it twice and I doubt very much I would have been able to do so with these restrictions

newyorkmetz12

Then again, my customer value score was significantly higher than what most DMs reported when we were able to see the last month.

What is customer value score????? where can we see it?

FlyerBrit

Thought @:-)

For example - maybe I am lucky enough to SDC my 'T' class fare to another flight. Does that mean that my original ticket gets put back in the 'T' bucket of the original flight?.

If that be the case then someone else would be able to SDC into what was the original 'T' fare bucket. - Or would that make too much sense?

rylan

And not going to find availability for S/H/Q fares either.

Get ready to see substantially less SDC and more oversold flights.
Also going to be fun when somebody is holding an A/G ticket and they can't SDC because only F/P is available and the cabin is empty before processing upgrades.

fti

So many people say this with every rule change DL makes. Reality is that few really follow through on it. I sincerely hope you do, but if you do, realize you will be the exception not the rule. Most frequent flyers book an airline based on convenience (hub captive, better connections, etc). So changing airlines just due to one rule change is very uncommon.

GatorBlues

The same fare class requirement is awful. It basically eliminates the program except in the rarest of rare situations.

I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel on Delta and just buying from whatever airline will sell me the cheapest ticket. This one change isn't that huge in a vacuum, but combined with everything else Delta has done to the program in the last year or two, I just don't see much value in continuing to pay more to earn status.

rylan

Thats not going to happen either. Just because you free up 1 T pax doesn't mean the flight will increment from T0 to T1. It'll free up full Y inventory, and possibly add one to whatever bucket they're selling at the time, which is most likely only Y/B/M.

rylan

Bingo. There ya go DL. I suspect a LOT more people are going to be feeling the same way. I don't think the fresh MBAs have heard the term "straw that broke the camel's back". Or in this case, deli shop that took too much ham out of the sandwich.

mtkeller

Well, there goes free SDC out of LNK. We get three flights a day to MSP, departing roughly 0640, 1300, and 1700.

Is it just me, or does it seem like they're trying to take the worst parts of the UA and AA programs to create a new low?

Ti22

Absolutely, positively agree.....

Remember this folks DL corp DOES NOT HAVE YOUR BACK!

TheMadBrewer

Or the "Best of Both" from the airline's point of view