lamont2718

BACK ON TOPIC:

Pleased to report that I just received an op-up on JFK-LAX. Flight has been oversold and medallions are being moved up. New boarding pass shows the original fare class and the new seat assignment in BE.

Flying on a 76Z/W, with 13 out of 26 seats open in J prior to boarding, now all filled. Unclear whether all 13 people who were bumped up were medallions vs. some NRSAs. There were zero people on or cleared from the upgrade list.

jooce

That's awesome! I'm assuming your flight time was during peak travel times so that was why it was oversold.

CaliguyNYC

Hell of a morning. Delta cancelled the Noon JFK-LAX flight was rebooked on a 6pm flight which was a no go. Called and had to FIGHT to get JFK-SFO-LAX (I am on a paid J class tix going to a business dinner). Literally left my apartment with 5 min after I got off the phone. Checked in to flight in cab (thank god) and got mobile boarding pass. Reach airport and print out boarding pass - I have been rerouted! Sky priority desk at JFK says don't know why I was rebooked on a different flight and they can't get me back on SFO flight. Agent calls gate and says don't give away my seat (one hour and fifteen to departure - I'm thinking there's plenty of time). Gate says they want to process non revs (really!)! Basically even the plat line refused to put me back (flight was oversold - but I knew my seat was not assigned yet). Finally I had to say - so I am being involuntarily bumped (remember I was checked in with a boarding pass). That did the trick. I was put on flight. Check in call gate and Gate agent protested still but sky checkin forced her to release seat (saying plat line rebooked me). As they rushed me to gate she said a Diamond wouldn't be happy. Well not a diamond it was a pilot (and they were two other non revs). When they brought on to plane I was introduced as the trouble maker. Delta pilot in uniform leaves my seat. REALLY!! Was that intro necessary? So basically you used to have to deal with early upgrades if you flight got cancelled and you wanted to be rebooked when paying for J or F and now its Delta employees. JFK-SFO/LAX are trunk business routes. NO upgrades or non revs should be processed until the very last min especially when Delta cancelled a 767 flight that only had 4 open seats. Horrible experience today. The friendly check in agent said I really understood the delta rules and saying I was bumped was smart (in my mind I was thinking I fly you a ton why would you think I wouldn't know the rules). If paying J class customers now have to relay on gate agents choosing us over their friends when flights get cancelled god help us. No med upgrades should at least mean open seats until the very last moment so people can get rebooked not closing the flight even earlier than before. Sorry for the rant but its been quite a morning.

HongKonger

Welcome to the Brave New World of DL.

jdrtravel

I read this as a GA aggressively and proactively protecting non-rev space, which is a huge huge red flag in my mind. It is my understand that during IROPS you should absolutley be able to request alternate routing if seats are available, and that if you are paid F/J, you should be seated in F/J unless already sold out. Also, the claim that a Diamond won't be happy is clearly false given that upgrades are not given on this route anymore. Please make sure DL is aware of this. I would call this SHEENA.

sethb

The pilot could have been a Diamond; many employees sometimes fly on the own money and get status.

I think you had a wonderful opportunity to be all bright and cheerful about "Hi! I'm the paying passenger Delta is going to all this trouble over to protect its profits and the jobs of its employees!"

wp_kid

^^^

CaliguyNYC

Agreed. Be it diamond or not, there were three open seats filled with upgrades / non paying pax. The gate should not have closed the flight over an hour in advance. When the check in lady called the gate, I would expect the gate to say, oh of course we'll hold the seat. Because the gate closed the flight, it made rebooking me that much harder (check in at JFK couldn't do it and Delta phone res would only do it when I said I was being bumped). Btw I was also insisting on my exact aisle seat (which I knew the check in lady had asked to keep open). My guess is the pilot had most seniority and then ended up being bumped by me because the other two non revs were already seated in their window seats. Anyway my now 9.5 hour journey is almost coming to an end (instead of 6). I will make my dinner and that's what matters. I will write to Delta as JFK-LAX/SFO are my primary routes and if they allow the route to degrade and be non business traveler friendly (i.e. difficult last minute changes), I will switch back to AA with their new A32T (AA btw assigns a special rep to my company and always manages to get us on - within reason). I switched because of Delta's 76W and the Delta friendly staff.

GGBFlyer

Has anyone out there been able to get a mileage upgrade into BE between JFK-LAX or JFK-SFO?

Burj

Thanks for sharing your story!

Wow...just wow....this is EXACTLY what a lot of us feared...the JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA BE cabin is being treated as the employee shuttle. When HQ starts shafting the frequent fliers with "enhancements"...it isn't long until the corporate culture permeates all levels and all employees start to view customers, including paid J, as "trouble makers"....

Sabai

No doubt to maintain the exclusivity of the forward cabin.

Even the DL bootlickers might have a hard time rationalizing this one.

sethb

You'll note we haven't heard from the Usual Suspects.

WJBJ. Oh, wait . . .

clr4t8koff

Honestly - how often are employees like pilots paying for revenue tickets on their own airline? Does it happen - absolutely. Does it happen enough that pilots are Diamonds on their own airline - I find that hard. And I'm sure the tickets they do buy are highly discounted.

FitTraveler

BE = BusinessEmployee class.

clr4t8koff

Good for you. I'm mostly loyal to Delta, but this treatment was horrendous. I don't blame you for wanting to switch back.