AntonS

On my second international flight this year, Delta is doing up-ups because Y is overbooked (apparently they upgrade people with higher status, because its not me) but not willing to sell me upgraded seat for $1000 cash. I think it does not make sense. I know that Delta is not as aggressive as other airlines offering day of departure upgardes for cash, but when flight is overbooked and the refuse to take $1000, it just does not make sense.

pvn

They would have upgraded you for cash, just more cash than you were willing to spend. They've decided it's easier (and, perhaps, more rewarding in the long-term) for them to just op-up elites than to get into an auction with kettles.

WFBF

Orange County Commuter

This keeps people from buying a cheap seat and assuming they can pay to get an upgrade. So if you don't have status you have to pay the $3K or more they wanted for the seat, you can't hope for a "cheap upgrade".

Delta's decided the long term profit is in getting people to pay the asking price not getting them to buy cheap and hope for a cheap upgrade meaning they get $1,000 for a seat that they think is work 3K.

Since they don't always have to do OP-UPs (I have flown on several international flights where there were LOTS of empty Business/D1 seats) the long term strategy probably works well.

Beckles

I bet it would take a lot less than 10 Benjamin Franklins to get an op-up from most gate agents.

TheMadBrewer

Also OpUps are often done right before boarding starts as it depends on non-shows, last minute cancelations, GUC waitlists, etc. Probably not much time to handle the paperwork.

And out outstations where Delta has one flight a day (or maybe two) there might not even be infrastructure at the gate to process payments easily. (Honestly don't know)

The one time I got a buy up offer at OLCI it was DTW-LHR in August (this was before GUCs). My guess is they were way oversold and had an empty BE (as it was then) cabin. Even then I was made the offer but my no status companion (separate PNRs) didn't get an offer and we checked in within 5 minutes of each other (I was first, so maybe I got the only one).

But just like the few totally surprise OpUps -- where as you board a new seat assignment spits out -- means I hold my breath when boarding and INTL flight, I now have a moments anticipation every time I do OLCI

TTT

Some international D1 flights offer a cash upgrade option via OLCI or the kiosk. It's just a luck of the draw sort of thing.

MCO Flyer

Seems strange because in this scenario you would think DL would target a flight like this for a cash OPUP during online check-in if they are just going to have to give them away for free in the end. Might as well get some value out of them. Just My Thoughts.

DiverDave

I would speculate that Revenue Management worries that folks will quit buying D1 and roll the dice for the chance of a cheap buyup at check-in.

David

ijgordon

Yup, plenty of other airlines do this. Maybe DL believes it protects the long-term revenue integrity of business class. Does it actually? Other airlines don't think so.

355F1

Some people just can't afford to drop $4k+ every time they cross the pond.

However, I try to fly KLM a lot rather than DL when flying Skyteam because if they have an empty seat in J they will sell it for cash or cash+miles.

s0ssos

I think it all depends on how you offer them those Ben Franklins

LonghaulCommuter

I find that they do offer me cheap upgrades to D1 only when they are oversold in economy. I suspect they offer this to a small number of upper Medallion members and if there are any left over, they go to Op-Ups. If Y is not oversold, makes no sense to offer cheap upgrades because they would have a hard time selling J for those very high prices so they would make less money if they did that in the long run. Don't worry. Delta is good at extracting every bit of profit from their various programs, even if it might annoy flyers (revenue based miles, for example).

ncwillett

Do you know for sure it's op-ups? Is it possible that the upgraded pax had GUC's clear?

And yes, generally speaking op-ups go to higher level medallions first.

nichelle

I dream of an OpUp ! One day..... sigh....

AntonS

Yes I am sure, I asked at the gate, ICN=>SEA, HKG=>SEA and SEA=>CDG. On each flight they there were zero people on upgrade list and they were willing to sell me a seat only for $4k = walk up fare difference.

ICN => SEA was simply overbooked in Y, up-ups to C.

HKG=>SEA had too many non-rev pax on stand by, they upgraded elite pax and gave stand-by pax Y seats.

SEA=>CDG they gave C to non-rev stand-by pax last minute before closing the door.