Group Tour - V class upgrade options

Old May 7, 2017, 5:42 pm
  #1  
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Group Tour - V class upgrade options

I am doing a tour with my kids school. We are flying ATL-FRA in few weeks and lucky for me we are booked on Delta and it's a direct flight. I was warned that we would have limited options with seat assignments and upgrades due to the group tour and pricing considerations.

I am able to see my flight online and even to add my skymiles number. I was able to pay for Comfort+ on both segments which will help some. I also called the Diamond line and am told that there is upgraded space available (that never happens for me!) but there is a note on our booking about the group sales and not to touch the reservation at all.

Anyone have any experience in this space? Should I just be grateful to have a decent Comfort+ seat or is there a way to use a GUC, or upgrade with miles?.

Thanks all!
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Old May 7, 2017, 5:47 pm
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This might be a great opportunity for HUCA with the Diamond line- I would definitely inquire about buying up or do whatever it takes (within reason) to sit up front.
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Old May 7, 2017, 5:59 pm
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I only have experience with this once, and it was with United Airlines (I know, I know, it was a low moment and I was not in charge). In this case, any changes had to go through the group ticketing office and needed to be made by the person who was listed as the group leader. Once I knew what name that was, I was able to call in and say that I was that person and make any changes I wanted to, but it needed to be done by group sales. You might try to a conference call to group sales with that person if they are willing.
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Old May 7, 2017, 6:06 pm
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International flights require a K or higher fare for mileage upgrades, so your V fare is a no go there.

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...de-awards.html

GUC's can be used on V fares. But you can only upgrade yourself and one companion and it will require one GUC per passenger.
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Old May 7, 2017, 7:23 pm
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Originally Posted by SeaHawg
This might be a great opportunity for HUCA with the Diamond line- I would definitely inquire about buying up or do whatever it takes (within reason) to sit up front.
The inhibitor means that it isn't worth the cost of a toll-free call. The PNR note is not simply a warning to an agent.

OP - Likely the tour contract requires that contact with DL be handled by a specified individual so as to prevent different people from mucking things up. Contact that person and see if they will join a three-way call with you, likely with the group bookings, to determine whether the GUC can be applied.
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Old May 8, 2017, 6:41 am
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Originally Posted by Father-of-3
I am doing a tour with my kids school. We are flying ATL-FRA in few weeks and lucky for me we are booked on Delta and it's a direct flight. I was warned that we would have limited options with seat assignments and upgrades due to the group tour and pricing considerations.

I am able to see my flight online and even to add my skymiles number. I was able to pay for Comfort+ on both segments which will help some. I also called the Diamond line and am told that there is upgraded space available (that never happens for me!) but there is a note on our booking about the group sales and not to touch the reservation at all.

Anyone have any experience in this space? Should I just be grateful to have a decent Comfort+ seat or is there a way to use a GUC, or upgrade with miles?.

Thanks all!
Excuse me, but it sounds like you're traveling as a parent with some school group. Shouldn't you travel with the students in coach to chaperone the kids?

BTW, do you have a direct flight or a nonstop flight? They're different.
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Old May 8, 2017, 6:56 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Excuse me, but it sounds like you're traveling as a parent with some school group. Shouldn't you travel with the students in coach to chaperone the kids?
I am not sure why you are being so judgemental???

I take students (high school) on trips myself and while I usually sit with the kids, this year I was up in J while the other chaperones were with the kids. If you have enough staff/chaperones to sit with the kids, what's the big deal if someone wants to pay to be upfront?

I paid for the upgrade as I wanted the leg room.

The OP didn't say what age kids or what their role was...

To the OP:

I had to buy a non-group price ticket in order to upgrade to J. Also, like others have said, you will most likely have to go through the agent that did the group purchase for you. That was how it was with me, however, I arranged J before we bought all the tickets as I had done the same trip with students a month before and it was too tight in Y, hence why I paid extra for J.
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Old May 8, 2017, 7:31 am
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Originally Posted by Handcake
I am not sure why you are being so judgemental???

I take students (high school) on trips myself and while I usually sit with the kids, this year I was up in J while the other chaperones were with the kids. If you have enough staff/chaperones to sit with the kids, what's the big deal if someone wants to pay to be upfront?
I assume the school doesn't have extra funding to pay for tickets for parents who want to come along but don't actually want to chaperone.

If your volunteered role is to chaperone, why would you relinquish that responsibility for the flight? If they didn't need your chaperone abilities, they simply wouldn't have brought you.

I agree with MSP here - the big deal is that, with less chaperones, the kids are more likely to misbehave - causing inconveniences for other passengers, which you can't be aware of as you're sitting up in J.

Finallly, there is simply the social concerns here - you're better than all the other chaperones and the kids to sit in J? I wouldn't want to interact with the others after I separated myself for the flight because 7.5 hours was far too much to bear in C+ (sarcasm added for emphasis).
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Old May 8, 2017, 10:27 am
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I'm curious as to why the OP even had to pay for a C+ seat. That should be free with their DM status... unless there was something as part of the group rate that excluded any medallion benefits.
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Old May 8, 2017, 10:36 am
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I am not a chaperone. I am a paid participant just like the students.

Adults on tour actually pay a surcharge of $400 (I guess because we might eat more). The chaperones pretty much come for free or at a discount and are teachers at the school. There is a 6:1 ratio of chaperones to participants. I and the two other parents going count as participants. We are even very specifically NOT chaperones and our kids need to understand that the teachers and guides are in charge and what they day goes. I am to follow the teachers and guides instructions just like the students. I'm good with all of that. The teachers are great and my kids are older and well behaved. Most of the kids will be between their junior and senior years and there are only about a dozen.

I understand why people might have issues if I was a chaperone and blowing off that responsibility but that isn't the case. Also, our seat assignments are all over the airplane they didn't put us together in a group.

Also, this is a non-stop flight. Sorry for the wrong terminology.
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Old May 8, 2017, 10:38 am
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Originally Posted by rylan
I'm curious as to why the OP even had to pay for a C+ seat. That should be free with their DM status... unless there was something as part of the group rate that excluded any medallion benefits.
I believe it has to do with the group tour rate stuff. I am also likely NOT going to get FF miles. It was all very clear up front that these would be super low level tickets with no perks or flexibility. I don't mind paying for the C+ seat. I never sleep well on flights so any little extra bit helps. I'm not a fan of drugs but this might be an ambien flight if my doc will give me one.
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Old May 8, 2017, 11:21 am
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Bummer you might not even get miles/mqm credit for the tickets. Its worth a shot to inquire with the group sales department about using a global upgrade cert and see what happens.
Miles isn't applicable since you'd need a K or higher fare.
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Old May 8, 2017, 1:04 pm
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Originally Posted by btonkid12345
I assume the school doesn't have extra funding to pay for tickets for parents who want to come along but don't actually want to chaperone.

If your volunteered role is to chaperone, why would you relinquish that responsibility for the flight? If they didn't need your chaperone abilities, they simply wouldn't have brought you.

I agree with MSP here - the big deal is that, with less chaperones, the kids are more likely to misbehave - causing inconveniences for other passengers, which you can't be aware of as you're sitting up in J.

Finallly, there is simply the social concerns here - you're better than all the other chaperones and the kids to sit in J? I wouldn't want to interact with the others after I separated myself for the flight because 7.5 hours was far too much to bear in C+ (sarcasm added for emphasis).
A lot of assumptions here. OP did not state that the school paid for the ticket, only that the ticket was purchased at a group rate. OP may very well have paid the school for the ticket. OP did not state that OP is a chaperone for the flight, only that OP is going. For all we know there are paid teachers/staff who are responsible to chaperone and parents who choose to come are extra but not needed. Also, how old are the students? 10 year olds and 17 years olds have very different needs.


Sorry, edited to add that I just that OP responded to this.
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:27 pm
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Just to close the loop on this:

I was not able to upgrade and I even had to pay to get Comfort-Plus. I was actually able to find out that the tour group got an incredible deal on the tickets so really I'm lucky they didn't put us all in center seats.

Amazingly I did get miles and MQMs for the flight. That was a really nice bonus as it was about 8000 MQMs!
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