SJC ORD LDR

I've seen $1100 offered on a plane before during the computer outage last August and now that can be offered by a front line employee instead of just a manager. So, that's a real and positive change.

I can see times such as a busy summer weekend where they would need to offer a lot for a person to miss a few days of work so they can use the seat for someone else. So, this change will allow DL to do this instead of IDB.

Besides this beats a kick in the teeth any day.

country_boy

1) Early October. Flight to BAL via ATL Check in online 24-12 hrs early. Departure airport doesn't accept electronic boarding passes. Unable to get paper boarding pass from kiosk or ticket counter. Delta rebooked me for 24 hours later (Both cc receipt and invoice showed actual departure date.) Called delta on phone. Delta reaccomidated me on following day's flight due to 15 minute late departure . I said I have no problem with a 1 hr connection, but they said it was too late flight was oversold. Ticket was "broken." I had to give cc number to book a brand new flight ATL-BAL on a really late night flight.


2,3,4) December To ANC via ATL and somewhere I forgot (PDX or SEA). Departing flight in to ATL was late. Agent rebooked me on latter fight that would get me to PDX or SEA (so I could get to ANC via AS). Get to gate and gate agent won't let me on flight due to Weight and Balance Issue. Called delta. Delta reservations says no weight and balance issues. Delta reservations is saying she has to let me on, but she won't speak with them. She closes the door and asks me to step away to continue my cell phone call. Delta rebooks me for early AM departure. (I give her name to to Delta agent and latter delta supervisor. Delta ticket counter (on concourse) rebooks me on AM flight and prints paper boarding pass. Next morning, boarding pass not accepted by TSA (TSA claims they do a dip into delta's database for every delta boarding pass at ATL. Delta IT confirms they absolutely have that capability and do it for every passenger. GO back to delta ticket counter- Delta has rebooked me (during the night they claim) back on original flight now, 24 hrs later of course. No seats available on flight I hold boarding pass to, or anything else until that night. Again that night I go to TSA and boarding pass is rejected. Go back out to ticket counter (with, I swear to god, like 40 boarding passes at this point) demand loudly to speak to a supervisor and starting yelling at ticket agent when we claimed TSA had to let me though. Delta give me a boarding pass at this point that works (with I think a different seat.)



#5 Feburary again ATL to ANC via SEA or PDX. In line at centerpoint to clear TSA. TSA rejects boarding pass (Iphone and paper copy). Call Delta. Delta states reservation was canceled just minutes before. Unable to restore reservation since flight was overbooked. Delta offered a flight the next day as my only alternative. Had to purchase a more expensive walk up ticket on AS.


I never arrive at ATL less then 1:30 prior to departure. They only time I was late for a connection (#2 above) was due to delta's delayed departure claimed to be Wx delays somewhere else in the system affecting equipment availability.

country_boy

According to TSA they do this at Atlanta. It was implied they don't do this 100% at other airports.


I tend to fly out of CSG, and TSA has only been accepting electronic boarding passes for a short time. No reason to think they do or don't do a dip. But I see their logic in doing so. TSA already has your flight info ahead of time, so when they scan the barcode, there is no way to tell if they are pulling from a TSA database or the carrier's one.

javabytes

I don't think the readers are pulling from anything but the barcode on the BP. All the info is embedded in the barcode, and more recently, a signature is too (guess they learned something from people being able to change a certain digit to a 3 ).

FlyingNone

I know people that game this all the time around the holidays - purposely booking the Wednesday or Sunday at Thanksgiving and don't care if they take the bump......so isn't Delta kind of asking for trouble ? Of course they will NOT do this for every passenger IDB'd on every flight (unless you're a full fare paying F-class passenger, maybe?) ....but really, almost $10,000 ??? It's a draw for people (I imagine many psgrs will think they can hit the jackpot) but wait and see how many flights DL will be extremely careful about overbooking,..... right - most if not all of them. Somehow I just envision people low on the totem pole getting IDB'd and screaming at agents at gates that they are "entitled to $10,000".....I can just hear it now.

NorthwestFlyer

Read between the lines. Delta will very rarely issue $9,950 payment to pax.

NorthwestFlyer

Those R my sentiments exactly. Airlines calculate profits to a micro-penny. It is simply an unsustainable 'Biz Model' to make payouts of $9,950 to Pax
...End of story.

C W

Why do you think passengers will be getting $9,950?

Game theory dictates that on any flight passengers will bite well before $9,950. Collusion among several hundred strangers is impossible. In dire oversold situations once they hit $2,000+ they'll have mobs rushing the GA to get bumped. Nobody will have the opportunity to hold out for anywhere near $9,950.

Regardless, Delta's yield management is so good that they have very few IDBs that will be replaced by new, high payout VDB. Delta IDBs 4.69 of every 100,000 passengers. There is no reason to think that compensation will increase for any bump that was already a VDB because people are already taking those offers. The only increase in cost will be for turning IDBs into VDBs. As this Telegraph article points out, Delta has so few IDBs that it could pay $9,950 to every passenger it IBDs per year and only pay $12 million, while they make $4.4 billion of annual profit. And since those passengers will get nowhere near $9,950 per bump and Delta dollars cost Delta far less than real money, the annual financial impact is nowhere near $12 million, probably less than a quarter of that.

The short version is: You can scream at a gate agent all you want and they won't give you close to $9,950 because there're a bunch of people behind you who'll bump for $2,000 or probably less. Cost to Delta is minimal.

Outside of the economic analysis, I find your argument strangely internally inconsistent. Accepting your premise that airlines are very accounting-drive and careful with costs, then why would Delta implement this policy if it would be financially disastrous? The argument makes no sense.

dilbertsdaddy

This may be good PR for DL, but the real reason is to prevent additional legislation.

The losers up in DC can't wait to stick their nose into something like this rather than doing something important......

I care about healthcare, immigration, the economy.....I don't care if MLB properly manages steroid use.

Good move by DL.

C W

I agree this is part of their motivation. They want to prevent an EC 261/2004 type regulation from being enacted.

It shouldn't diminish our appreciation of the move's effect of practically eliminating IDB at Delta, however

rucksack

I'm not sure that's true. Flying out of Atlanta before, I've done a SDC to a different flight but have managed to pass through security on my old boarding pass before checking in for my new flight. I don't think TSA distinguishes between checked in or not checked in, though it's an unusual situation that someone would have a boarding pass and not be checked-in.

rucksack

More so than being a PR stunt or a move to stave off regulations, I think it's fundamentally an exercise in risk management. The cost of an event like what happened to United is simply far greater than the cost of higher denied boarding compensation.

outoftown

I think Delta already knew before the UA IDB issue that the days of $200~$400 vouchers are dead. On April 2, I received a $1000 voucher for overnighting in ATL Sunday and flying the first flight out the a.m. to Chicago Midway. The next morning 5 more seats were needed for another $900 offer, quickly updated to $1000 for an afternoon flight instead.
I added the voucher money to $1600 with two $800 vouchers I already had in my account. Mrs. Outoftown and I are going to PEK in October with two systemwide upgrades requested, all on Delta's dime.

Another reason the amount is going up no one has discussed yet. The voucher has to used by the person on the voucher or by your SO, only if they are traveling with you on the same itinerary. Delta refused to allow me to use a voucher for Mrs. Outoftown on the same itinerary to Orlando in January, only because I had to buy my ticket through my employer's OTA and hers was being purchased directly from Delta. I used to buy/sell vouchers on Craigslist, I think those days are over, and has further deteriorated the voucher's value.

Interesting way to lose a voucher, on March 30, AA announced that 5 people had to get off my plane in CRW (I was already buckled in), due to the fuel crew overfilling the plane and causing a weight problem. I volunteered first for the $500 voucher and waited until the plane left and as they were processing the vouchers, the GA politely told me I would get nothing since I was flying standby on that flight. Complaint to AA just quoted the requirement that standbys would be asked to exit first (no one mentioned my standby status until the plane left). If I stayed on board, they probably would have ignored me.

-outoftown

davetravels

I'm goin' to PEK Wednesday - with an overnight in LA on the way back. Ticket cost: $688. Paid via an $800 voucher from last year, also - all segments now upgraded with a GUC as of yesterday.

The $112 balance of the voucher - I added a $200 Choice Benefit voucher and bought a ticket to MEX, with an overnight in NYC to get my Chinese visa, that cost somewhere around $340 and was upgraded on ALL segments via complimentary Medallion Upgrades.

Total cost of a trip to MEX & NYC in F and a trip to PEK & LA in F / J . . . . about $30 bucks.

C W

Sounds super fun! Nice work!! Wish I was going