jer

Just two quick questions on upgrading M Fares:

1) Does the entire itinerary need to be in M fare, or only the TATL leg that I am looking to upgrade? I am flying ROC to CAI, and the TATL is M while the others are lower.

2) TATL M fares never show as "upgrade eligible" on delta.com. Is that just the standard, or does that mean there is no available inventory?

Ultimately I will need to call delta to make this happen, but any advance info very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jer

rylan

Only the tatl legs need to be in M, however its not likely to be any cheaper by breaking the fare... and in fact could be a lot more since that basically creates multiple fares that add together.

Yes the 'upgrade eligible' only refers to the complimentary medallion upgrades which do not apply for tatl.

jer

Thanks, Rylan,

Delta .com actually put the fare together and identifies different segments with different fares. Not sure why.

I will report back on conversations with delta if anything interesting emerges.

Grouchy

With a M fare you just need O inventory and 25k SM (I assume you are not going to use a GUC on a M fare). Of course as you already mentioned you need to call DL to find out if there is O available or put you on their waitlist if itsn't.

MSPeconomist

One should always be careful when delta.dumb offers broken fares. It tends to offer the lowest fare class available rather than the total price. For example, if you see a combination of H and Q, first do an advanced search to make everything H (higher than Q). If this doesn't work, try S or higher, M or higher, etc. as you search by fare class. Often you find that putting it all in the same fare class is considerable cheaper. Plus, you get higher upgrade priority for the segments you forced into a higher fare. [If this doesn't work on delta.dumb or you ahve trouble ticketing the itinerary in the fare classes you want, try calling DL and telling the agent the exact fare class you want for each segment. They can put this together easily, but don't typically know to offer it or look for it when broken fares appear.]

Task Force DL

...also, as I have mentioned many times on this forum, make SURE that you price out discount Biz (I/Z) fares before going through the M fare and upgrade game. In some cases the I/Z fare can be lower than the M and in many cases it is only a few hundred dollars more.

TFD

jer

Thanks for the tips everyone. Delta rep informs me that in mixed fare itineraries, that the lowest fare bucket controls the entire trip, so it would not be eligible for upgrade. There was no inventory anyway on any carrier.

I need to have econ for my employer, but thought for a moment I might be able to swing the upgrade given delta.com returning the M fare on the TATL segment. Guess it's in the back for me.

Task Force DL

Why don't you just buy the M fare and then change the flight to an I/Z on your own dime? Often DL will waive the change fee if you "up fare" and the I/Z may not be more than a few hundred bucks...

Don't sit in the back if you can help it

MSPeconomist

To repeat, breaking the fare is probably more expensive. The ticket should not have been issued this way. Ask/insist about getting it changed to a through M fare.