pbarnette

If $300 is cheap, why are you flying in Y?

I think marketing folks greatly exaggerate the costs of customer acquisition in commodity industries. I get it; it is their job, but it is still an exaggeration.

acvitale

If you think this is bad.. Next Sunday flying PHX-ATL. Coach was $491.00 First was $267.00 Guess which I booked!

Last week found a SAN-ATL that was $1441 in Y and $596 in F. Again a no brainer!

In BOTH cases coach was non refundable same as the F fare

anbhc

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...tml?icid=FS_US

Turn a holiday trip into a luxurious excursion with first-rate, First Class upgrade deals through February 17, 2015. Move up to First Class for as little as an additional $49* each way (based on a required round-trip Economy Class ticket purchase) and experience Priority Boarding®, delicious menu selections, complimentary cocktails and the Delta Studio™ entertainment suite.

To purchase, book a First Class ticket or select the First Class upgrade option from your Trip Summary while booking an Economy Class ticket. Then, travel between November 22, 2014 and February 17, 2015, within the contiguous U.S., or between the contiguous U.S. and Canada.

PV_Premier

Well got a nice Fcm offer today and was gonna accept it later if F started to fill on my longer segment. Went back into OLCI to accept it and it was not offered again. DLs loss if they end up giving away upgrades.

jamesteroh

With upgrades being harder to get thanks to FCM, I sure hope Delta doesn't start doing an ECM with Economy comfort seats.

sethb

That's $-300; DL was charging $300 less for F than Y. My ticket had been purchased weeks before; I paid something like $300 round trip, my boss booked last minute paying $500 for F rather than $800 for Y. I wasn't offered any sort of upgrade option.

If there is customer loyalty, then it isn't a commodity industry.

pbarnette

Let me get this straight. You paid $300. You are moaning because your boss paid $500 for F?

Who says there is customer loyalty?

RaflW

They've done at least some variable pricing on EC since inception. My first TATL in EC cost $60, in a 763. On the A332/333 the same sector was $80 I think, just a few months later.

I have no doubt that they will be testing price tolerance for C+. Part of why people, including me, blew up when they announced no GM C+ at purchase was specifically because a lof of FTs knew immediately that the goal was ECM.

As an FO, I foresee more competition for domestic exit row seats.

But DL is a business, and they feel they have the pricing power right now. We'll see over time if they're right.

sethb

I think it is stupid of DL to sell F for $500 when they could have sold Y for $800. The amount I paid a month earlier is irrelevant.

That's the whole purpose of FF programs.

Crazyhotelguy

Hi my name is Crazyhotelguy and I am guilty of giving into the DL game of FCM...

I just booked a business trip to NYC. My partner will be joining me..

I booked via corporate booking engine MCO - NYC. Round trip ~$350. Logged into DL and found my upgrade offer of $116 round trip. Took it.. Booked as A/G respectively off a K/V ticket.

Just booked partner on DL.Dumb and was offered the same fare. During booking FC was $520. In the check-out process I was offered to u/g for $85/per person each way. Since I wanted to make sure he got the ug as a GM, I went ahead and purchased it. I used miles and cash. I guess I could have booked the ticket in Y and hoped for the same $116, hoping for the upgrade, but I did not push my luck. His ticket booked as A/G as well.

So the $116 offer for a total of 1900 miles RT was not bad. Had I not been traveling with partner, I am divided as to if I would have gone for the $170...

I'll take the extra MQM's in hope that I can gain status quicker and move to gain status on a second airline next year.

Now the interesting part of this is that earlier in the day, I was trying to book the same flights.. At that time, the base fare for the ticket in Y was $460 Q/V. I did not book because I needed to confirm my times with partner. Good thing I did not book then I will take the FC ticket for $6 more than I was going to pay earlier

While I find this a good deal, I do not see how anyone can really claim that DL is going to make a lot MORE money off this FCM business. Sure they are monetizing FC, $6 at a time... Heck we have now broken the TOD barrier..

I may just have to stick around to play this game as long as it lasts...

jamesteroh

My issue with doing ECM is a lot of elites book a lot closer to flight times than non-status occasional leisure travelers meaning there will be no EC aisles at time of booking. It's hard enough now to find EC aisle seatings when booking a flight less than a month out (not sure if holding EC seats backs until t-72 for gold's will help with that or not since there is a good possibility those aisle EC seats are already occupied by people paying or other PMs/DMs).

If getting EC seats becomes as difficult as FC upgrades are becoming, I can see Delta no longer allowing FO's, and possibly gold's to book exit row and other coveted front of the bus seats at time of booking or even to start selling exit rows for something like $10 or $20 to non-status at time of booking

TheMadBrewer

I bought a bunch of LAX-SEA tickets around this time last year to take advantage of the Double MQM (plus I like Seattle ) A couple of them were 6 and 9 months out and I ended up FCM-ing for about $120 (on a $200 ticket) so I could SDC. Some friends ended up flying in to meet me and I was able -- without hassle or stress -- to adjust my schedule to fit theirs.

GoHogsAR

How about taking FCM a step further...would you pay to UG your UG? What if you were offered a buy-up from R to A, which would result in the additional MQMs and the SDC benefit? I'd consider it for the right price.

jamesteroh

Are you talking an upgrade done via miles or RU/GU? For domestic trips it's my understanding that you can SDC on those as well which is another way people can game the system. If the flight you want doesn't inventory for miles/RU (not that a lot of flights do anyway) what's to stop someone from booking a less desirable flight and then SDCing into the flight they want 24 hours out?

I wouldn't put it past Delta to offer an "enhancement" at time of purchase where you can pay an extra charge and be giving bonus MQM's like they do with the RDM mileage boost and allow you to SDC providing there is an empty seat in coach.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Keep in mind, they did not promise wall Street how much money they would make off of FCM... only that they would get the percentage of sold FC seats up to 75 to 80%.

Folks will just have to book early before the $6 UGs are all sold out.