FlyFromDTW

Because of yesterday's fire at EWR, I took a flight from JFK. The Delta agent switched me to a First Class seat immediately which was the only class available. I was booked in U and flew in G. I was surprised today when the miles posted and I received a 50% MQM bonus. I thought Delta had changed their system so that the MQM bonus would not be awarded unless the PAID fare class was eligible for the bonus. I guess I was incorrect. Anyone else have an experience in a similar situation. Definitely not complaining, but in future IRROPS situations I will look for opportunities to be rebooked directly into First if this wasn't just a fluke.

securesmaskfirst

Shhh delete or change this post.

GoAmtrak

Different situation so perhaps different system rules, but in January I had IRROPS on an economy award ticket booked via AS (FF number switched to DL before check-in). New flights were booked into B and the BPs didn't have the usual "NO FF CREDIT" notation. But RDM and MQM still posted zilch.

orca15

Ive been rebooked in Y before with the same result.

FlyFromDTW

Unfortunately is was flying from NYC so only about 250 bonus MQMs but good to know I can rely on this in future

To the "shhhhh" comment - I'm sure Delta is aware of this but their IT team hasn't found a good way to fix this yet!

javabytes

Don't expect this to happen frequently. The hole was largely plugged years ago. That said, there are still rare occasions where the manner in which the agent rebooked you will trigger the bonus - whether due to a training issue (rep rebooking you the wrong way), technology, or both. But it happens so infrequently it is not a reason to alter your behavior during IROPS.

FlyFromDTW

Javabytes - I suspected exactly what you posted - I thought the hole was plugged, but I guess in IRROPs the res agents are given some flexibility to override the system in order to accommodate passengers. In my case, there was only a seat available in first and when I told the res agent that I was diamond, he said that he would put me in it which likely required changing the fare class. By the way, this proved helpful when I did an SDC later to an earlier flight (which happened to be added at JFK, likely due to the EWR Fire), when I was changed right into a first class seat. So in the future, may be good to keep in mind that if you can identify a first class only availability to the res agent, they could potentially switch you and would be in fare class that would earn bonus and provide added flexibility in case further changes are needed on that leg of the flight.

iflyalexair

The reason that you were able to get the bonus is because the ticket was reissued as a higher class of service ticket. Back in the day, you would receive MQMs and RDMs based solely on the class of service in which you were booked in your PNR, irrespective of your actual electronic ticket class. Most agents when they are busy rebooking a flight because of IRROPs are not going to take the time to try to maintain your original booking class because it is another thing to worry about and your LTUVXE class of service bucket may be unavailable on the new flight.

Now, DL has smartened up the system to track and award miles based on the fare class of the ticket. Since you had an airport change the agent had to reissue the flight coupon to match the new city pairs otherwise the electronic ticket would likely disassociate. At least on SABRE, a change in flight segment on the same date of service with the same city pairs did not require a reissue, but a change of airport required the ticket to be reissued if you wanted to keep it electronic.

BOSTransplant

This also happened to me, but I actually received the benefit twice. I was booked HOU-ATL-BOS, but the HOU-ATL leg was delayed early in the day, so I switched to IAH-ATL-BOS. The agent reissued IAH-ATL as a paid first class ticket, because that's all that was available. IAH-ATL ended up also being delayed, causing me to misconnect and be stuck in ATL overnight. For some reason when they issued me a new ATL-BOS ticket, they issued that one as a paid first class fare as well. I checked afterward, and I ended up getting the 50% MQM bonus for both segments, even though I didn't pay for first class. This was during all of the horrible weather in Atlanta around New Year's Eve, so maybe the agents I worked with on the diamond line just responded well to the fact that I was relaxed and polite on the phone and had already researched all of my rebooking options before calling in to save them time.

kenn0223

+1 This is why.

If the ticket is reissued (i.e. a new ticket number) then (IME) you will get the class of service bonus. If the reservation is changed and the existing ticket just re-synced to the changed reservation (i.e. same ticket number) than it will default to what was in the ticket.

FlyFromDTW

Thanks! Good to know. So in future IRROPS, if I can change either arrival or departure city without much inconvenience, can potentially get decent amount of extra MQMs. Wonder if this would work international as well.