RobertS975

Does having a DL Reserve still break a tie? Is MM or 2MM a factor for tiebreakers?

Beckles

I've had two battlefield upgrades that I recall in about twenty years (though keep in mind I have never flown DL as much as many here on FT, even my current PM status is only because of AMEX MQM's + FCM MQM's and there was a period of time where I was not elite on Delta as I was flying US and/or WN primarily, i.e., I've been Medallion on Delta at times over the past 20 years, but not elite all the time) and witnessed others. Most recently, about six months ago, I waited until later in boarding and asked the GA when I boarded "is first boarded full", she said yes and I boarded. I was not very happy to get on board and see it certainly was not and there were two empty seats (I was #1 on the list before boarding, so I wasn't even trying to game the YBYL system in this case). However, she came aboard and gave me and another gentleman new boarding passes for first before the flight pushed back. The other was about twenty years ago an FA upgraded me on a full flight, this was in the period of time where LUT fares were not upgradeable and I was on such a fare, coach was full and F was not (not something you see much these days!).

DL Reserve, yes. MM or 2MM, no (according to the published rules). The order they listed tiebreakers in (which I suspect is the order of importance) is Reserve, Corporate account, $25k YTD AMEX spend, and finally date/time of request. Hard to imagine a situation where they'd need to go deeper than that!

DiverDave

You are correct ^, but that "battle" is mostly a lost cause here on the DL forum as almost everybody uses that term for gate upgrades. Though given the gate lice and chaos during boarding, the error is quite understandable.

I have been upgraded on board exactly three times. Two of those were some years back, but astoundingly one was last summer ATL-SEA with a waitlisted RUC.

David

kahuna613

I fly exclusively to Africa on government fares...but with the changes a few years ago in the JTR allowing restricted airfare instead of government airfare, we more or less never use full Y fares, or even the capacity controlled ones because there's not too many cities in Africa with a City Pair fare from Washington. For the other cities, the fare difference between the "government" fare and a nonrefundable fare is in the 1000s of dollars and not justified. Fairly moot point anyhow because I rarely make a domestic connecting flight on my way to Africa, preferring rather to go directly to Paris or Amsterdam on codeshares.

That being said, I did just book possibly my first Y fare a few weeks ago for an upcoming trip to Africa with a domestic flight on Delta, and it cleared at booking. Glad I ticketed before the standard 72 hours before departure, but I always ticket after the itinerary is approved because I want good seats in coach, and you can't select preferred seats until you are ticketed.

Bottom line: I guess this is a much bigger deal for government travelers who travel domestically exclusively, but honestly, how many people are really still flying on YCA fares for the government?

JayTeaBee

So I just thought I'd come provide an update on my debacle of a story with this one. Called the PM line last night and explained how I booked this via priceline to snag the Y domestic segs and Z international. Explained how I couldn't price it out on DL so booked via priceline etc and the point of my evil plan was to have upgrade priority at the gate with my non status companion. Rep went on a bit of a tirade about how we would have priority above everyone except DM's with Y fare or DM's using instruments. I asked him to double check because I understood that to have changed on 4/30. Before he could check, in our conversation, I mentioned I already have two tickets booked for my in laws on the same exact flights, paid the same price, but they are in J the whole way. He asked me to give him that itinerary so he could verify and before I knew it he instantly moved Mrs. JayTeaBee & I up to A fares in 1st on the domestic segs and linked the pnrs together. He told me because I was able to provide him an itinerary at same prices they were able to work some magic on the PM line. Almost seemed like a price match situation? In any event, I'm pretty thrilled with the result. It was a pain but I got the price and flights I wanted by kind of WFBF'ing. haha.

ATOBTTR

My previous assignment in Ohio had me flying quite a few routes that didn't have YCA fares so I went with what DTS provided in the "alternate options" tab since that's the only flights offered, but in SEA, nearly every market has a YCA city pair, especially domestically, and many international markets do as well. My only experience with an int'l YCA fare was a couple years ago when I came back from Afghanistan via Germany and had to stop at Ramstein for a couple days, so I didn't continue with the rotator bird all the way back to the states. I traveled on a YCA fare for FRA-DAY on US/AA when I left Germany.

I guess getting away from the City-Pairs is dependent on your travel office and approving officials. In Ohio, if the route did have a city-pair fare, my approving officials were less strict about using "mission requirements" to justify flying someone other than the contract carrier on the route. At my current assignment, they're more strict about enforcing it, even when another carrier might be slightly cheaper. All depends on your department I guess.

burbanite

I was moved from my C+ seat to F on my last LAX-ATL in April, quite the surprise... I had it figured out when someone boarded with a printed boarding pass with my seat number on it.

GoAmtrak

As others have stated, this is indeed a big deal for WAS-area flyers (in a good way or bad way depending on which side you're on). Recently my BWI-MSP flight (MD90) at T-6 went from 3/16 booked in F to 15/16. Yet the C+ seatmap barely changed. Lots of upgrades to lower-tier gov. YCA flyers. I ended up 12th on the list, whereas I might have gotten the upgrade had the flight been under DL's new policy. I also historically had terrible upgrade rates out of IAD on UA in my 1K days, even pre-merger.