Whew that’s a good question, I truly think this is a YMMV situation.

I assume in the scenario under discussion there is currently no available inventory on the SLC-HNL leg, so the question is whether, just because you have a cleared RUC on the first leg, you can SDC and scam the system into giving you F the entire way on your new itinerary just because you currently have the first flight in F. I would be astonished if this worked.

IMO the interesting question, and it's mostly an academic one, is: if you have cleared only one leg is if it's treated as a broken fare. In which case you could SDC LGA-ATL to any other LGA-ATL or LGA-XXX-ATL in F, but would still have to SDC the ATL-HNL flight in coach and following the coach SDC rules.

But If I had to guess, especially given DL IT, there is zero chance it handles this situation automatically in any shape or form, so you have to get an agent to process it manually, in which case again zero chance IMO of getting F the whole way unless you are a *really* good sweet talker :p You *might* get them to give you F on LGA-SLC and coach SLC-HNL.

If there's no available F inventory on the SLC-HNL leg, you couldn't SDC in F even if you had a full F paid ticket.

The question is, when there is F inventory on the SLC-HNL leg, what happens? Do you get F on the first leg, then waitlist the RUC for the second? Do you waitlist the RUC on both? Or will they give you F on both? And what needs to be available to do the SDC in the first place; even if there's OY availability on both flights, does that suffice?

Pretty sure that SDC can only be used for entire itin and not hop-by-hop (which requires going stand-by).

only if the ticket has been reissued.

without knowing this, it's pointless to even speculate on the rest of your question.

The way I read Zorak's post is that "no available inventory" referred to RUC inventory specifically, not open F seats.

What I have done (and I presume I'm not the only one) is there have been times where I've been on flights with an RUC that's still wait-listed yet has open F seats while in the SDC window and I've SDC'ed to a flight with RUC availability, had the RUC clear into F, and then SDC'ed back to my original flight but now in F.

Nicely done, sir! :D

2 calls or 1. Ballsy to do both moves on the same call!

it's 100% within policy so it shouldn't matter

It shouldn't matter, but I could also conceive that some agents might push back if they think you are getting away with something, even if it is fully within policy.

Many people would see this as gaming the system. If you are going to game the system, do it smart. You may think it doesn’t matter, but reports from the field where people are finding ways around issues to reach a result delta didn’t intend, will have an effect on policy. I don’t think taking a “legalistic” approach will be effective in the long run, it will just cause the rules to change.

Wow. Good info. I was told before by multiple agents that SDC is one time thing.

sure, they might, but some agents push back on other things that are within policy, like SDCing to any open F seat on a paid ticket, and yet nobody suggests not asking for that.

"if you do things within the rules they might change the rules"

sure, maybe

they might also change the rules even if you don't do those things!

there's no evidence that this is a "result that delta didn't intend."