xliioper

You guys are late to the party. Most of this was announced and discussed way back in April --

Delta Simplifies Clearance Priority for Comp Upgrades

arunhn

haha. i guess. i jsut got the email today.

TrojanTraveler

Yes, but I was hoping there would be further specifics. I stumbled on this earlier today (was looking for info on how upgrades worked for F and C+ when on an award), and noticed that it's not completely clear.

jordyn

This actually makes no sense to me. Why would you prefer to upgrade people who spent a lot on their credit card versus who spent a lot of money on plane tickets?

TrojanTraveler

To encourage people to spend money on those credit cards, which is a source of revenue.

xliioper

It's just a tie-breaker after status and fare class. Like the Amex Reserve priority, it will likely rarely come into play. Fare class (i.e. higher ticket price) still trumps it.

wschild

I think this is all an improvement. And nice to see it clearly spelled out.

Companion upgrades is the best improvement I see.

TrojanTraveler

It depends on how they define "medallion group". Is that in reference to medallion level (in which case that could have higher priority over all fare classes), or, in reference to fare class groupings, which is sorta how it was in regards to the Reserve card (e.g. I have K class, you have K class and Reserve card, you are ahead of me), or ? It's not clear, at least to me.

rucksack

This is the part that's unclear to me. In the original literature published in April, they used the word "fare class family". Now it reads "fare class grouping". This is vague and leaves it open to the possibility that Delta is grouping multiple fare classes together for upgrade priority (e.g. YBM / SHQK / LUTVX).

BusTrav8yrs

I have to agree, MQD makes more sense than the waiver, but I will take it.

When you get that low in tie breakers anyway it makes very little difference, I never thought I got an UG because I had my Reserve card, even missed one on a B fare as a DM once.

But if the other guy has the reserve card too and is booking corporate travel I am lower? That sucks.

WestSideBilly

Ditto, especially where W fares fall (one page seems to indicate they're after YBM, another is that they're above Y [!]).


Granted I'm not sure if it matters personally; life as a discount fare FO means my only upgrades are usually to middle C+ seats, then furiously refreshing the app an hour or two out hoping the DMs/PMs clear out of a window seat.

tuono07

So what is this Corporate Traveler thing?
Delta is one of my companies preferred carriers but what is the Delta Corporate Traveler?

jimrpa

Ok, so first, people with the various credit cards get rewarded even more. Worse, Diamonds are now going to be hauling all their no-status spouses, family members, business associates, school friends, and what-not onto the upgrade list with them, even further reducing the opportunity for upgrades for other diamonds or other medallions! Consider: a diamond who happens to have a reserve card is traveling on a K fare and has a no-status school buddy on a T fare. There's another Diamond, who's spent say $50K with DL, but doesn't happen to have the stupid reserve card and the flight has two seats left. So the no-status buddy is up front while the diamond is in a crappy middle C- seat? Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Heck, I'd still be annoyed if we were talking about a platinum in C-!

Companions should clear last or, if medallion, per their status.

pvn

if there's only one seat open, wouldn't it go to the higher DM instead of his/her companion?

rucksack

Delta has corporate contracts that guarantee certain benefits and SLAs and provide discounted fares, etc. This corporate code is included when you book through your corporate travel agent.

When you go to check in does it say something like "Delta thanks you and [Company] for your business and loyalty"?

If so, your company has a corporate agreement with Delta.