+1...

No more TATL or TPAC SWU upgrades for PMs... No more complimentary JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA upgrades for anybody... PMs can't even use a cert upgrade at all for JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA. And as you said, anybody wanting to upgrade needs to find availability in secret booking classes. That sounds promising.

At least DMs will make out okay assuming upgrade inventory can be found... everybody else gets hosed.

Don't forget, not to long ago, DL only flew the 757 on jfk - lax. They only went 767s so they could advertise and sell the flatbed seats. This is what opened UG chances to GM's and in some cases, FO's. When they flew the 75 with angled seats, it was a very tough UG even as a DM. When DL starts pushing out the flatbed 757's, I'd bet my paycheck that the 76's will be removed from jfk - lax altogether. I'm sure DL did there homework and realizes that they could easily sell 16, or close to it, BE seats per flight once the 75's are equiped with the flatbeds. So, the loss here is less then people expect.

Just as I expected, I chose some random dates in June for J travel on JFK - LAX. The fare is actually not to bad....$1900.00. This used to be no lower then $2400ish. I would expect J fares to go even lower. However, as other users have said, why not offer comp UGs to any elite who would be willing to pay for a K or higher fare?

Bulkhead EC isnt to bad. I mean, you get tons of legroom, free booze, free movies so its not like I will be jumping ship.

Lastly, the 4 Global Certs on any fare (minus E) will be nice, and an acceptable trade off for the inability to UG on a 6 hour transcon.. Being able to UG on a 15 hour flight means a lot more to me then the 6 hour transcon UG. Now, lets examine this option a bit further. Since this is limited to DM's, I think the chances of getting upgraded on a sLUT fare are excellent. How many DM's are there on any given international flight? On average, I would say anywhere from 2 to 6.
Now, I can upgrade to BE on JFK to SIN for a $1500.00 fare, and unlike UA, there is no copay or mileage requirements.

Sucks to lose jfk lax/sfo/sea but who knows, maybe they will announce a "we heard you" and allow K and up.

Non revs will most likely not like the gobal certs as that means less seats on international flights. They will like the transcon policy as that will mean an open seat or two once the 75's are all back on those routes.

did anyone contact delta to find out about previously booked JFK-SEA flights? i want a refund if they are no longer offering comp upgrades on this flight when i booked months ago and don't fly until june. this route is frequently upgraded for me as a PM and the notification was not given far enough in advance.

Where was I?

This is a truly asinine change. They want me wasting hours of their agents' time on the phone? IDIOTS.

How about upgrading with miles on TPACS? 25,000K each way on a Y,B, or M dare? Can this still be done once one runs out of Global and SWUs?

Huge two thumbs up to this move! Wow, what an amazing Christmas present.

I did a bunch of international travel over Thanksgiving on flights that were severely undersold, and spent the time sitting in row 11 staring at empty BE seats musing over possible changes for improving the SWUs that would make me happy. The global upgrades far exceed anything I came up with - thanks Delta!

I really like how we can choose what we care about more - international or domestic upgrades. Thanks to all the Seattle service upgrades, now I'm in a place where I don't mind playing the complimentary lottery on the occasional transcon in exchange for BE upgrades - international travel is what matters to me. But for frequent business travelers who stay domestic, they can choose the regional upgrades, and those DM/PMs can use them to jump over me on the upgrade list. And that's appropriate.

I do think it's a little lame that the JFK-SEA flights are no longer eligible for complimentary upgrades, but the BE product is pretty fantastic so I understand why. My only worry here is if they expand BE to all Seattle transcons; I'm fine avoiding JFK, but if SEA-ATL or SEA-DTW loses its complimentary status I'll be significantly crankier. (And I do expect these upgrades to get even harder as people start avoiding JFK...)

The last remaining hurdle for Delta is award ticket redemption. Fix the technology there and loosen up the award inventory a bit, and Delta will unexpectedly be the proud owners of the top frequent flier program in the US (if not the world). Who would have seen this coming a few weeks ago?

Currently, no upgrades on the BE transcons are cleared in advance of the gate, and mileage upgrade requests do not transfer over at T-24. For anyone who flies lots of these segments and wishes to "pay" to upgrade, choosing SWUs by 2/28/2014 may be a wise choice.

Please tell them that. I know I have. Many times.

Hopefully they'll figure it out, but I'm not holding my breath.

The best thing about this move is that AA and UA top-tier elites are less likely to see the value of whatever SWUs are issued get dropped by hiking up more fare restrictions on them.

As someone who could easily be a DL DM but won't be absent some glitch fares, thank you DL for just that.

what do you mean? You could always do this and still can.

he's not talking about transcons but TPAC's. Two totally diff animals.

With requests and fulfillment on day of departure for transoceanic flights? No, not always with DL.

Execs Plat gets comp upgrades in the US.

I don't think he specifically meant day of dept. I just used miles to UG ATL - JNB at T - 48 days and counting.

Dwayne,

What happens if we already selected our choice gifts and six SWU's were one of them??? I would have waited until 3/1 to have selected the global if I would have known (I used one a couple weeks week ago and would have just used 12,500 miles if I would have known). Any way of getting the globals instead and having 12,500 miles deducted from my SM account for that upgrade I used them on?

And how will priority work if the inventory isn't available at time of booking for international? will the priority be based on who called in to request to use their upgrade cert first regardless of fare class or will it be like now where it goes in order of highest fare class with Am Ex reserves getting the advantage in a tie breaker situation?