airmotive

So I flew from MEX-ATL on DL366 last week. It was a 738, and I snagged one of the few remaining seats in regular economy: 15C to be exact. Not great, but it's an aisle seat and the flight is only a few hours.

At the gate, I was #7 for 3 First Class seats. (I'm a DM, but so was half the flight apparently). I was #1 for 1 seat in C+, but that was a middle seat, so I asked the GA to take me off the list.
No worries.

So we board the flight, and I'm delighted to see that, in fact, rows 10-16 are all C+! We're all seated, and the GA comes on board. He finds me and happily informs me that I've been upgraded to 12B in C+. Then he looks around...gets a confused look on his face...and says, "Well that's weird; you're already in C+. Nevermind."
In the GA's defense, Delta's seatmap (as well as SeatGuru's) still show only three rows of C+ on the 738.

Oh....and about the beer.
My Miller Lite cost me an electronic drink coupon, (but my seatmates had to pull out their credit cards).
I'm not sure if the FA only charged for drinks in rows 13-16, or the entire C+ section. I assume it was only 13-16 (and all of the Economy cabin).
I didn't know if Delta's C+ drink policies had changed, so I didn't fuss. However, I assume that the FA's also didn't realize the additional C+ seats on the plane, and served the Economy "experience".

xliioper

DL decided to bump the number of C+ seats from 18 to 36 awhile ago. It's actually rows 10-15 that have C+ (not 10-16).

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...8.html#seatmap

Should only be a few aircraft that have not been modded at this point --
http://www.airliners.net/forum/viewt...=300#p19511417

jgers1j

I've noticed this discrepancy a few times during my recent trips on 738s. I assume DL is waiting to market the full C+ allotment on the modified planes until all mods are complete. That will allow them to change equipment freely without reducing the number of C+ seats should the substitute not have been modified yet.

jdrtravel

I thought alcohol was free for all pax on international flights? Or is that only transcontinental flights where there is a D1 cabin and complimentary meals in coach?

xliioper

Only long-haul international (D1 flights) gets free booze in all of coach. Main Cabin on trans-con D1 flights only get a free meal, not free booze.

jdrtravel

oops, I mean intercontinental not transcontinental.

Widgets

If your headrest says Comfort+, you're entitled to free alcohol regardless of what the seat map says. FAs should know that.

exwannabe

In the spirit of FT, I have 2 comments towards the OP.

1) You probably should have deselected the C+ upgrade option well in advance. Lucky you did not end up in the seated in one of the lavs.

2) A coupon wasted on a Miler Lite? Were they out of beer?

On a serious note, nice to hear Widgets comments. I would have thought they might still be dong the "C+ but not sold as C+" dance.

MSPeconomist

Personally, I would have questioned the FA before handing over the drink coupon while in a C+ seat. I usually end up trying to give away my free drink coupons as their expiration dates approach, but this early in the year you never know whether you're going to "need" them for a free drink at some later date.

airmotive

At the gate, I saw I had no chance for F and the only C+ was middle, so I asked the GA to drop me from the upgrade list. He said no problem, and even commented that he already had identified a middle-seat economy passenger who would actually benefit from the upgrade.
(then the same GA later came on board with my 'upgraded' ticket and saw the expanded C+.)

In my OP, I was going to make a joke about my preferred lawn mowing beer, but it had already gotten a little wordy and so I dropped it. MEX was hot and I had dragged my luggage up and down Terminal 1 (where I arrived into) before realizing Delta arrives at T1, but departs T2. By the time I boarded, I felt like I had mowed a couple acres in August and a 'Lite Beer by Miller: A Fine Pilsner Beer' just sounded gooooood.
Besides, I had never used an electronic drink ticket and was curious how it worked. Win/Win.

airmotive

It seems Delta found a way to do what AA screwed up.
Remember when AA hyped their extra leg room for economy? They went about it all wrong. Clearly, Delta did it right and so they're expanding it. Good for them.
Yeah, there's a few rough edges, but it is clearly successful.
The expansion clearly caught everyone off guard, regardless of how long it has been going.

davetravels

2 thingz....

1) As often as I go to MEX, I have NEVER arrived or departed from Terminal 1 flying DL. Not since the NW days have I been in T1.

2) May I ask your status level? Just curious, as I have rarely NOT gotten the F UG in or out if MEX, and usually at the DM window.

airmotive

We definitely arrived at T1 (my 7th trip into MEX in five years, a short walk to the Hilton). In fact, on departure from T2, we were delayed because it was taking a long time to tow the aircraft over from T1.

I'm a DM...Hopefully a MM in the next month or so. I forget what my fare bucket was, but it was about $570 IND-ATL-MEX and back. Definitely not an e- ticket.
I was UG'ed on all my other legs.

MSPeconomist

Are you trying to suggest that DL will keep expanding its C+ seating sections until the entire coach cabin becomes C+ (versus starting there with AA's more room throughout coach mistake), at which point Basic Economy will certainly disappear and all fares will be W class?

DL knows how many elites they have and knows the history of elite status on specific flights, times of day, day and season, etc. so if the goal was for example to generally grant C+ seats to all DMs/PMs, 75% of GMs, and 15% of FOs and partner SkyTeam ElitePlus, then DL was certainly capable of doing the calculation. Guessing how well revenue management would do with selling C+ W paid fares of course was new territory, but DL must have believed that they knew this too, even though strictly speaking they had no applicable (big or otherwise) data that was relevant.