Note: For tickets issued on/after 7/15/16 for travel on/after 1/1/17 the required booking classes are P and T.

This is what all the J-class SB certs now say. Anyone have any info what are these P and T classes? Is it just replacement of current G & Z classes, or is it now some lower class with even lesser availability for SB bookings?

Quite the opposite.

P is two fare classes above G in domestic first.
Z is the lowest fare class in int'l biz, with the the hierarchy being JCDIZ.
T is third from the bottom on coach, not counting basic economy (YBMSHQKLUTXVE).

So I'm curious to see what the required booking class is for int'l biz, and what the previous booking class was for coach.

But at least for domestic first, being able to use SB certs on P fares instead of just G is actually a very big positive.

Where did this information come from?

https://www.delta.com/edoc/displayEd...language=EN%3E

Thanks, seeing it now.

Some of the other Enhanced Availability certs say P & Q as the fare classes.

It seems that T/Q were always the necessary classes for coach tickets (non-enhanced vs. enhanced), so no change there.

P is definitely better than both A and G which was the old requirement for enhanced/non-enhanced inventory for domestic FC.

What's curious though, is what that maps to for business-coded flights. The old requirements were Z or I. If they now allow booking into D inventory (third from the bottom, just like P), that's a win there, too.

Also noticed that they are now hawking C+ upgrade certs on SB, too.

Log into your skybonus.delta.com account and click on any int'l business class cert (e.g. trans-Atlantic 'delta one').

What I quoted here is for int'l (trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific, Africa, S. America, etc.) bus. class certs. All of them.

I was also seeing T as a coach class. But, these are J-class certs, and also the fare mapping I did just matched up to domestic 'first' and discount Y, but nothing to int'l business. That is why I was wondering, is T being changed to be int'l business deep discount/award/SB class or what.

Currently it reads (for trans-Atlantic, to use that example):

But on top of that it says:

Other region int'l business SB certs have different language, but same classes currently, and all the same note in red at top of new classes being (only?) P and T.

It is unclear is it P and T classes ONLY in replacement of all the current ones (G, Z, Q, and I, H, and J for AF certain routes), or only for some. Very unclearly worded by DL. That is why I posted here, to try to get some clarity on this, on is this making things better or worse for SB cert redemption as of July 15th for traveling in 2017 and onwards, is T class being changed to be int'l business SB/award class, or what.

Yeah, I dug around after my first reply and saw all the same stuff you detailed.

Completely agree that it seems weird they are using domestic FC and coach booking codes to specify intl business class awards.

For now, I'm chalking it up to misguided web coding by DL IT, and optimistically thinking that they are expanding SB certs to allow use on P/D fares in first/business. (Granted, this is wishful thinking and based on no actual evidence beyond what you've described and I've see on the SB website.)

If they were in fact changing their revenue fare buckets, I feel like this would be a much bigger deal that someone would have noticed by now, especially since industry notices would need to go out to travel agents, GDS providers, etc.

Delta to Discontinue Published Fares Booking in S, G and A Classes to Support Future Re-alignment

Hah, nice.

So that explains the P fare for domestic FC, if A and G are going away. I'm guessing that A and S will be repurposed for C+ to align with AF's PE fare classes (IIRC AF uses W/A/S for PE).

Still doesn't explain the T fare, or what P aligns to for business/D1 fares. Perhaps there is an even bigger realignment of all fares coming up.

So bottom line is this better for those redeeming international biz certs from SB? Worse or moot point.

My read is that it's unknown until we know the new fare class hierarchies.

Also, this note appears on the domestic D1 TCON certs, too. And the enhanced availability certs specify P or Q class.

Does anyone know whether this applies to only newly issued certs?

The language would imply that the deciding factors are when you book the ticket and your date of travel, regardless of when the SB cert was claimed/issued.

The change seems to be a function of the actual inventory that will be available starting 7/15/16 for flights on or after 1/1/17.

I think the real stupid item is that they are selling C+ 'upgrade' certs. Seriously?

Thanks. I was a member, but was kicked out because of the "5 Flyer" rule. I cannot access the site anymore.

Of course, I just booked a holiday in Hawaii, on an amazingly ridiculous routing. I'll now try to rebook based on this new rule.