This, unfortunately

Nothing official from Delta on this, just rumor and speculation at this point.

The obvious answer to me for a few years has been DL should be prioritizing upgrades simply by elite level then MQD for a given segment. (This is not a change I would particularly benefit from, so it is not a self-serving suggestion).

It is very rare that the cheapest refundable ticket on a given route would be full fare Y. I used to buy refundable tickets for my work travel, and I don't believe it was ever a Y class ticket, there was always a less expensive, but still refundable, ticket available than full-fare Y.

You can try this on Delta.com, pick a route, search for the cheapest ticket, then go to Advanced Search and click "Refundable Flights Only" and chances are the refundable ticket will be a fare class less than Y.

I don't know why they don't just cut to the chase and prioritize by elite level then MQD for the segment and be done with it. You could throw in tie-breakers based on corporate travel partners, Reserve, etc.

The rumor and speculation appears to be accurate:
http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...-upgrades.html

I wonder if the reason they are going to use the 25k in spending as a tie breaker indicates something more sinister in the future.... like your amex now doesn't earn you MQMs but rather a tie breaker in upgrade priority...

I don't think that's the right answer for a number of reasons:

• Should connecting passengers whose fare is split between multiple segments automatically get worse treatment?
• Many corporate accounts get reduced price fares. Going strictly by MQD would favor an individual over strategic corporate accounts.

It appears the blogger linked in the original post had the language verbatim.

As a PM this seems like a positive change, the only negative to me is the prioritization of Corporate Travel Partners, but being a Reserve card holder I'm not sure that affects me. This is somewhat speculative, but I bet the order of those preferences matter, so Reserve > Corporate Travel Partner > $25k credit card spend > date and time of request.

Not really. Y fares are typically much more expensive than discounted first class fares (i.e., P, A, and G).

I doubt that, as it would be a significant reduction in benefits of the Amex card. A 4th order level tiebreak is not much of a benefit.

If they are paying less for the segment, sure.
Why should an individual who pays more not be favored?

In my opinion the existing system is fatally flawed by the simple fact that higher fare class does not directly relate to a higher price paid, you can have someone on a flight on a K fare who paid less than another passenger on a T fare.

I don't think this is something that general customers can do. I have been able to blend me and my spouses with supervisor approval for a single new pnr. My guess is that this is something that was worked out in a corporate contract.

fixed that for you :/

There has been quite a bit of antidotal evidence that corporate contracts have increased upgrade likelihood for some time. I don't think this is new, I just think it is finally a published part of the program.

A Full Y fare only gets you an upgrade if you are a Medallion on DL. On AA, at least last time I checked, which I admit has been a while, you can buy and then use the UG stickers to try to UG if you're on a non-status on Y fare.

On top of that, as mentioned above, you can usually find FC for cheaper than what a Full Y fare would cost.

Many routes now have the discounted "CA" fares, or capacity controlled. They don't have "last seat availability" but work mostly the same way as YCA fares (they are refundable and changeable without a penalty - you can get hit with a fare difference though if the capacity control fare is no longer available and only a YCA fare is available on the flight you're switching to). On DL, most of my capacity controlled fares have booked into K or L.

And if there's no GSA city-pair then it books random fare codes. I've seen everything from X to Q on DL when booking with the alternate options tab through DTS.

I wouldn't be shocked if this is a big one. I've traveled on some ridiculously expensive YCA fares but I've also traveled on some extremely cheap ones too - SEA-LAX is around $300-$350 round trip at the full YCA pair; around $175 or so round trip at the capacity controlled rate). And on DL, I've only missed one UG when on a YCA fare since finally moving to a market where there are actually a ton of contract rates (many routes I flew out of at my previous assignment didn't have GSA city-pair YCA fares).