Sabai

Yes, it's for this reason that DL fixed the Award Calendar...

CabinCaptive

As I mentioned earlier, I don't know if HI upgrades are all that amazing, really. The medallion UGs won’t work on ‘direct’ flights with a connection on the west coast, and there does not often seem to be that much availability for UGs on these routes anyway. I would prefer to see true BE service to HI with better EC. The current EC on JKF transcons is as good as much domestic first. I’d prefer to see this to HI.

Maybe the miles upgrade distinction is to actually help medallions get UGs?!

The Mileage Millionaire

For qualification earned this year (for elite status good through 2/28/2015), you have until 2/28/2015 to make your choices.

HongKonger

That's right. Just like there are low awards, but not really. You can advertise all sorts of great benefits if you never have to deliver them.

HongKonger

Same advice I gave to another poster, if they won't refund your money (without withholding fees), do a chargeback on your credit card.

HongKonger

No. They want you to treat it like a lottery ticket.

fansvodka

I am debating if I want to do that. I guess no one thinks I can argue my way to getting the upgrade since I purchased the ticket under different T&C's?

bubbashow

Now that's the high-revenue, premium flyer that DL wants to attract.

MSPeconomist

3. To me, requiring K+ for upgrades on the West Coast Hawaii flights but still M B Y for the ATL-HNL A330 route would make sense, at least until the West Coast routes get flat beds (and then presumably service that's closer to BE).

4. IME I've been able to upgrade on longhaul international flights when low BE award tickets weren't available on the flight, so I would guess that OP/RP inventory is more available than O/R, although this could depend on how close we are to the date of travel and other factors. Having the different classes allows RM more degrees of freedom, which should be good for DL.

However, SkyTeam partners such as AF and KLM use O for their saver award inventory class that can be booked with DL miles and also for their upgrade inventory seats available to DL FFers with instruments and eligible purchased fares. Perhaps DL is standardizing on using the same O/R class for award tickets and upgrades, just as recently most SkyTeam carriers aligned their fare classes.

HongKonger

You are the (only) type of customer DL cares about. Enjoy!

HongKonger

You think all programs should be exactly the same? You enjoy having something then having it taken away?

Perhaps (definitely) the SWUs kept some PMs flying DL when they otherwise wouldn't have.

HongKonger

Since it has a negative impact on many people of course they will complain. I understand that for someone who thinks DL walks on water, all changes are positive.

fansvodka

I actually do purchase several FC trips a year. Hardly anyone pays FC prices on these flights. Every time I go on one almost all the seats are empty and they UG 10 medallions. The price difference between economy @ $500 and FC @ $6000 is insane.

TrojanTraveler

I agree with several other posters that this is bad for many NY-based DMs (putting aside the PM impacts). I take a lot more transcons than int'l flights, and I doubt that I'm alone. Taking away the transcon upgrades really doesn't make much sense to me. If they fill it with purchased biz, then there's no upgrade anyways (which was not uncommon). And if they want to restrict transcon upgrades to DMs (which for all intents and purposes they have done), why bother with having us need to waste a new Global Upgrade? Why not just say DMs get upgraded if space is available? It's not like they were currently taking away space from paying pax, given that these were all gate upgrades.

DL has spent a lot of time and resources building up their presence in NY and to becoming the transcon carrier of choice. I think they shot themselves in the foot (or somewhere else) with this one.

I'd gladly give us the 2 RT GUs that I'm going to get for the ability to upgrade on transcons. And I really don't find the GUs all that valuable due to availability and transparency issues...unless there's some IT upgrade that's going to make this easy. (I'm sure it's in line right behind making the award search engine usable.)

And aside from HI-based travellers, I don't see why anyone would get excited about new upgrades to/from HI. Unless one lives there, most people aren't making frequent trips there (as opposed to, say, transcons). And I'm saying this as someone who travels to HI several times a year...and note that these planes are some of the worst in the fleet, even in F.

When AA and US got their DOJ goahead, I decided that I wasn't going to give further consideration to going to AA as US is pretty bad and their management is running the new show. DL has just lowered the bar again in considering them.

As a NY-based DM, the practical loss of transcon upgrades is a huge devaluation, and the other gains aren't much. And add that to the fact that it appears these new GUs and RUs will trump DMs on the normal upgrade list....I don't get it. Why devalue DM this way, especially in NY which is such a focus?

Fred 3

I must admit, I am amused by reading all of the posts -- especially those complaining.

Here is how I see it: People have long complained that there was not much a difference between PM and DM. Now there is. Is it perfect, no, but DM's now get 2 RT possibilities a year Transcon where they can use any fare except E.

Yes, it is a loss of losing the Transcon upgrade possibility, and yes it may not seem fair that you have to use your global GPU's, but honestly, what is the difference in the JFK-LHR flight and the JFK-LAX flight in time? For those of us who qualify as DM on domestic routes, the Global is rather meaningless. My only question is what are they going to do on the JFK-SEA 757 flights. Will those require GPU's as well?

No program is perfect. Not everyone will be pleased. But the question everyone should ask is for the majority of people, is this new program better off than the old program. I think it is.