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The Official “I Got Upgraded” Thread: JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA

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The Official “I Got Upgraded” Thread: JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA

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Old Mar 3, 2014, 2:48 pm
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by Medeski
GA was telling you something to make you go away. DL's policy on the forward cabin hasnt changed (as of this morning per my conversation with a friend) WRT non-revs.
What? No, their policy definitely changed on 3/1 for transcend flights (JFK to SFO/LAX/SEA:

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...-upgrades.html

...that's the entire point of this thread...

I'm in the air now; BE is almost empty (6/16 full). The DM/PM members sitting near me have been grumbling about it the entire flight.

I can't complain though; I have an empty middle next to me in EC on a mostly full flight :-)
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 3:41 pm
  #62  
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Originally Posted by bennos
I wouldn't hold my breath on $239 upgrades being the norm for TCON BE routes.
Unless Y is oversold, there are seats open in J and they want to make a couple extra bucks instead of upgrading LVC's for free.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 5:18 pm
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by appleguru
What? No, their policy definitely changed on 3/1
Medeski was pointing out that the policy for Non-Revenue Space Available passengers hasn't changed (NRSAs clear into J before Y).
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 5:22 pm
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by Crazyhotelguy
Sooo. By your definition, A, G, & P fares make one a HVC???

Tell that to the poor guy that had to buy a Y, B, M fare last minute and has to sit in back. A, G,& P are DISCOUNTED F fares, which are often only tens of dollars more than Y pricing.

Sure you get booked directly in FC, but tell me how valuable you are when IRROPS occur and you find yourself rebooked in Y on that A/G fare.

The elitist attitude of some on here is very unbecoming.
No problem...I'll take my $200 voucher and the diff in fare and march my butt to coach like a good FF'er.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 5:24 pm
  #65  
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Originally Posted by appleguru
I'm in the air now; BE is almost empty (6/16 full). The DM/PM members sitting near me have been grumbling about it the entire flight.
Things like this are an effective way for DL to piss away the goodwill among its elites....

I guess the original posts about some flights being filled with non-revs up front is going to be true as word gets around that they're going out empty.

Suppose it ends up being a nice break for the FA who is working the J cabin also with almost nobody there. Wonder if they'll start loading less meals to save on cost of the food.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 7:27 pm
  #66  
 
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I find it funny that Delta is doing this. It continues to struggle in the NYC trans-con markets, especially JFKLAX, where it's average fare is on par with JetBlue, lower than Virgin America, and far below UA and AA. (UA doesn't allow UDU on these routes either; AA does, but only Y to J, and, of course, for most elites it cost $150 in stickers the first place).

Not sure what it's going to accomplish here. It doesn't have much of the premium market as is.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 7:51 pm
  #67  
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They're going after corp contracts for the premium tcons, but somebody must be smoking something good if they think they're going to fill all of the seats up front on those on all or most of the flights. Outside of those substantially discounted J corp fares, the price difference is just too high for most pax to buy-up. While you can usually find a 1-stop tcon A or P fare in the 1.2k range, for the JFK routes its up over 3k.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 9:05 pm
  #68  
 
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Originally Posted by rylan
They're going after corp contracts for the premium tcons, but somebody must be smoking something good if they think they're going to fill all of the seats up front on those on all or most of the flights. Outside of those substantially discounted J corp fares, the price difference is just too high for most pax to buy-up. While you can usually find a 1-stop tcon A or P fare in the 1.2k range, for the JFK routes its up over 3k.
This is the part I don't really understand. Almost nobody is paying $3k since as you point out the corporate contracts are significantly discounted. But other than burning one of 4 globals that only DMs receive, or paying the ludicrous full fare, there's no way for anyone to buy up from Y to J. AA has it (stickers), UA has it (regional certs), VX has it (DoD upgrades), B6 has it (reasonable pricing in the first place).

A simple fix would be for mileage upgrades to go to the gate. Then K+miles would fill the gap.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 9:16 pm
  #69  
 
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Originally Posted by bennos
This is the part I don't really understand. Almost nobody is paying $3k since as you point out the corporate contracts are significantly discounted. But other than burning one of 4 globals that only DMs receive, or paying the ludicrous full fare, there's no way for anyone to buy up from Y to J. AA has it (stickers), UA has it (regional certs), VX has it (DoD upgrades), B6 has it (reasonable pricing in the first place).

A simple fix would be for mileage upgrades to go to the gate. Then K+miles would fill the gap.
I agree that still allowing K+ fares and miles or something similar makes sense. It's close to $750-$800 round trip on a K fare IIRC. They could add on a mileage surcharge for business elite routes the way they do right now with award tickets. Considering you can get medium level awards on that route, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to do a K fare plus miles and get upgraded. That would also require them to allow mileage upgrades to go to the gate.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 9:23 pm
  #70  
 
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Originally Posted by bennos
A simple fix would be for mileage upgrades to go to the gate. Then K+miles would fill the gap.
That would be nice. If they did that on all routes, though, Medallions would be infuriated.

Though I'd spend 12,500 Skypesos to guarantee an upgrade on my ATL-SEA flight on the A330 next week. So I'd be happy for that change in this instance.
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Old Mar 3, 2014, 9:45 pm
  #71  
 
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Has anyone confirmed that mileage upgrades will not be available under this new plan? Perhaps they will be, though I would not be surprised if it was priced at 25K each way like other BE routes.
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Old Mar 4, 2014, 12:55 am
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by bennos
As I was scrunched into an EC seat with yet another passenger next to me who kept invading my (lateral) space, I considered how much cheaper it would be to just buy the seat next to me than to buy J on these routes. Even buying a whole row for cheap lie flat is less than half the price.
Not a horrible idea. I try to avoid Y as much as possible, but the extra seat makes things very nice. I travel with the doggie once a year AMS-BOS; and it makes a huge difference (last year, BOS-AMS I had three seats in the middle section of an A330). No dogs allowed in BusinessElite; which I agree, is the proper policy.

Originally Posted by matthew64832
Clearly the logical thing would be to move the paying customers to the front and put non-revs in their coach seats, instead of putting the non-revs in the front.
This has been an "age-old" argument with regard to international (transatlantic and transpacific BusinessElite) flights. There are always lots of diamonds/platinums in the back, even when there are empty seats in BusinessElite.

I accept the situation, and try to buy decently priced Z-fares. On my last empty cabin A330 (non-modified) end of December the BusinessElite cabin ATL-AMS was absolutely empty. Originally, a Non-Rev flight attendant was seated next to me; but once we realized there were so many empty seats basically everyone solo took two seats (in the old 2-2-2 configuration) with exception to those who were flying together. Y was packed, hardly an empty seat. At minimum there were at least 4 Non-Rev passengers in Business Elite on this flight; but that cabin was still empty.

Now, my argument, in this case, is that I paid for BusinessElite (albeit, a "Z-fare") and got an extra empty seat next to me (this was probably the third time I have managed this in the last quarter of 2013; twice AMS-BOS, and once ATL-AMS). Of course, that's sort of a mute point now, since all the planes are 1-2-1 configuration, and I always choose a solo seat.

I received probably the best service of 2013 on this flight. Total rock-star flight attendants; and even though, they seemed to know a number of the Non-Rev flight attendants; I was definitely receiving amazing service and priority. Perhaps, just a good crew. Also, perhaps, since the flight was so empty up front, it was near impossible to provide "bad" service.
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Old Mar 4, 2014, 12:58 am
  #73  
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Originally Posted by jdrtravel
Has anyone confirmed that mileage upgrades will not be available under this new plan? Perhaps they will be, though I would not be surprised if it was priced at 25K each way like other BE routes.
Would you really pay $25K to sit in a BE recliner?
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Old Mar 4, 2014, 5:13 am
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by rylan
They're going after corp contracts for the premium tcons, but somebody must be smoking something good if they think they're going to fill all of the seats up front on those on all or most of the flights. Outside of those substantially discounted J corp fares, the price difference is just too high for most pax to buy-up. While you can usually find a 1-stop tcon A or P fare in the 1.2k range, for the JFK routes its up over 3k.
It's not just that the price is too high, it's a combination of the price being too high and the product not being worth it. What I think happened, is, they were counting upgrades as a cost, and by stopping the upgrades to Medallions, they "reduced costs". So, the executives get a bonus for this "cost reduction". The fact that it's not really a cost, and the fact that it diminishes revenue by leaving a Y seat occupied that maybe could have been sold, don't matter. The loss of revenue affects the shareholders; the bonus based on the illusory cost reduction benefits the executives who made the decision and who structured their pay to allow themselves to benefit from such decisions.

Or, I could be wrong, it could be that the Westin Heavenly Bedding really is that special.
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Old Mar 4, 2014, 5:24 am
  #75  
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Originally Posted by Crazyhotelguy
Sooo. By your definition, A, G, & P fares make one a HVC???

Tell that to the poor guy that had to buy a Y, B, M fare last minute and has to sit in back. A, G,& P are DISCOUNTED F fares, which are often only tens of dollars more than Y pricing.

Sure you get booked directly in FC, but tell me how valuable you are when IRROPS occur and you find yourself rebooked in Y on that A/G fare..

The elitist attitude of some on here is very unbecoming.
Not to mention completely illogical in many cases.
HongKonger is offline  


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