Experience with first class upsell

Old Jun 9, 2017, 8:09 pm
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Experience with first class upsell

So I originally booked a LAX-SFO rt flight for about $156 and just today me and my colleague were offer to upgrade to first class for about 74.00 each way, basically adding my total to about $304 dollars. However if you look online seats in first class are going for $600+

What's delta doing here? We have no status and it sounds like they really screwing over medallions since my flight is about 5 days from today. I am happy about it but it's really low of delta to disregard their loyal members this way
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 8:13 pm
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DL has decided they would rather sell F seats than give them away as Medallion upgrades ... yes, there are more than a few Medallions who are more than a little irritated at this business decision, but I suspect the majority realized long ago that filling the pointy end of the jet with free UGs was an unsustainable paradigm
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 8:14 pm
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Sounds about right... Check out the FCM Thread....
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 8:28 pm
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Originally Posted by i2ad10head
So I originally booked a LAX-SFO rt flight for about $156 and just today me and my colleague were offer to upgrade to first class for about 74.00 each way, basically adding my total to about $304 dollars. However if you look online seats in first class are going for $600+

What's delta doing here? We have no status and it sounds like they really screwing over medallions since my flight is about 5 days from today. I am happy about it but it's really low of delta to disregard their loyal members this way
WOW

don't ask questions, just enjoy it!
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 8:33 pm
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That's about right. As much as Delta might proclaim otherwise, loyalty is a one-way street. Delta has decided getting your extra $74 each way fits better into their strategy than upgrading Medallions. Expect this trend to continue as Delta targets an 80% paid load factor in the front cabin by 2020.
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 8:34 pm
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Originally Posted by pvn
WOW

don't ask questions, just enjoy it!
$74 each way for an hour trip sounds kinda wasteful to me, but I suppose we each have our own pain thresholds.
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 8:41 pm
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The cheapest G fare on this is route is $320 roundtrip (TAVUA0FB). These have a 3 week advance purchase requirement, so you can't purchase them now if buying a new ticket for a flight 5 days out. However, it's possible they have bucket inventory open in G and they just up-fared you to that. What does it say in the Fare Details section of your new receipt?

Last edited by xliioper; Jun 9, 2017 at 8:48 pm
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 9:51 pm
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Originally Posted by LBJ
The cheapest G fare on this is route is $320 roundtrip (TAVUA0FB). These have a 3 week advance purchase requirement, so you can't purchase them now if buying a new ticket for a flight 5 days out. However, it's possible they have bucket inventory open in G and they just up-fared you to that. What does it say in the Fare Details section of your new receipt?
It classifies it as an upsell and it is G fare, you are correct
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 10:44 pm
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No surprises here. If the better seat is worth the money to you, take it and run.

I am Delta Gold and I get basically jack out of it. Very frustrating to have to pay $150 still if I want to cancel an award booking with them. Not saying I should expect much out of a mid-tier status in 2017, but I learned a long time ago to be happy with international lounge access and that's about it (which is less helpful now due to Priority Pass and traveling on cheap business class tickets).

At least United lets me select Economy Plus at booking with the same United Gold status. Delta makes me wait til a few days before the flight to see if the most piddly upgrade ever clears - to Comfort Plus. I am happy to have it versus not, especially on a 5+ hour flight, but in reality the whole thing is kind of a joke.

I am not a business traveler, so I will never go out of my way to earn status. The only way it makes sense for my situation is if I can get as a side benefit from cheap business flights. I'll earn at least American Airlines Platinum this year simply due to great deals on Qatar and SriLankan. I'll barely even use American unless the route/price looks good.
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 10:46 pm
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Originally Posted by fliesdelta
$74 each way for an hour trip sounds kinda wasteful to me, but I suppose we each have our own pain thresholds.
Agree for a maybe one hour flight and to get one drink maybe 2 if lucky. Oh, and the Lovvo thing. Not even a half wrap anymore.
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Old Jun 9, 2017, 11:43 pm
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Originally Posted by i2ad10head
It classifies it as an upsell and it is G fare, you are correct
Based on your original purchase price, it looks like you originally bought 3 week advance T fares (although these are pricing at $152 RT for me instead of $156). You could have simply bought the discount G fares for an additional $82 each way back at original time of purchase. So the savings here actually only amounts to about $8 each way.
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Old Jun 10, 2017, 12:19 am
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Cool

Originally Posted by fliesdelta
$74 each way for an hour trip sounds kinda wasteful to me, but I suppose we each have our own pain thresholds.
My feelings exactly.

You can have several nice dinners out for $150.
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Old Jun 10, 2017, 12:49 am
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Originally Posted by Doc Savage
My feelings exactly.

You can have several nice dinners out for $150.
It all depends on where you live and what you call "nice"...

I live in central London, where you can't get half of a nice dinner for $150
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Old Jun 10, 2017, 1:03 am
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Originally Posted by Task Force DL
It all depends on where you live and what you call "nice"...

I live in central London, where you can't get half of a nice dinner for $150
Wait another day or two.
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Old Jun 10, 2017, 2:46 am
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Seems multiple airlines do this. Whenever I don't enter my Star Gold number on airlines like AC/CM/UA that's when I get the cheap-ish upgrade offers. But when my top tier AC status is listed on the BP I get ridiculous last minute offers that are exorbitant.

I understand wanting to sell the seats rather than giving them away as upgrades, but wouldn't you want to sell them to your most loyal customers? The only thing to the contrary I can think of is they want to try and incentivize those pax to just buy J in the first place and entice new customers to buy the upgrades and become loyal (screwed over) flyers.
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