DL and AF are "realigning class of service"
 

Hi DL experts,

I have booked with DL 4 pax for travel in AF premium economy SFO-CDG. Today, I received an email with the subject "Schedule Changes that Impact Your Upcoming Trip". It took me a while to figure out the change, since the flight times and flight numbers remain the same. Down low in the email, though, I noticed that "Premium Economy" has been struck through and replaced with "Economy".

I called DL reservations who were shockingly bad. They told me that I had purchased economy, when I had proof in hand that I was ticketed into Premium.

Checked with AF who told me they couldn't do anything, not even assign me seats any longer, and that I had to call DL.

Eventually got a response with another agent that "Delta and Air France are realigning class of service", and to check back in two weeks.

So, DL Experts-- what does this mean? I'm only really concerned since we are traveling with a 3 year old, and so want to insure that we are seated together. Having lost my seat assignments, and now not being able to re-choose them, for the next two weeks is going to be frustrating.

Thanks.

What is your travel date and were you originally ticketed into fare class 'W'?

What is your flight number? Was there an equipment change?

Traveling DL8456 (AF85) in mid-December. To answer another post, no equipment change shows (still a 777-200). DL email says I still have my seat assignments, but AF doesn't see them anymore or allow me to select another.

It was booked as "Premium Economy (W)" according to receipt.

Not seeing AF85 in the schedule past October 15th. It operates 3x weekly the first two weeks of October and then is discontinued (returning in late March). There is only the daily AF83 flight after that with a 3:15PM departure. So it looks like your flight was dropped from the schedule. Since it no longer exists, this is likely why you can't select seats. Saturday's are rather infamous around here for schedule changes and sometimes it can take a day or two for the change to fully trickle through the system. You should asked to be moved to AF83.

I had the same issue today. Booked Premium Economy (W) for a Delta ticketed, Air France operated flight DUB-CDG-JFK at the end of the month. Received the schedule change email this afternoon. Called the Medallion line who at least by that point knew about the "realignment" and was able to secure the same seats one row back. The ticket had to be manually reissued, however, by Air France due to the Saturday schedule changes and when they transferred me to AF, they could only retain seats on the CDG-JFK segment. We got switched to online check in for DUB-CDG and there is nothing AF can do about it apparently. Will try again on the AF site for seat assignment on the DUB-CDG in a few hours...

Edit to add that it appears these changes have greatly benefited my cousin on our outbound on Virgin Atlantic. Her Premium Economy ticket was mysteriously upgraded to Upper Class and she is now sitting up front while I am stuck back in Premium Economy! Both Delta and Virgin say there is nothing they can do to modify her booking now.

Probably should be a bit more precise here. There has been no "realignment" in terms of class of service offered. It likely refers to the fact that DL is now selling AF PE seats as P/A/G fare classes rather than W. This appears to be a recent shift and seems to be affecting people with existing AF W reservations when there is a schedule change. They have been selling VS PE seats as P/A/G fares for some time now. So it is only a realignment of fare classes used for AF PE seats, not a realignment of actual service sold. The use of P/A/G fare classes for PE distinguishes them from W fares used for DL Comfort+ reservations.

It also distinguishes between three different fare classes that DL is spelling as premium economy. I wonder how the old DL W fares are being mapped into P A G.

This is applicable to me as I has DL tickets on AF metal in premium economy(W) at the end of the month. Given that my flights are two weeks away, it sounds like I could be hosed if this happens. I'm also wondering if this realignment had something to do with the fares being inverted. PE on this ticket was $200 less than booking in regular economy. Interestingly, I have a colleague going on the same trip on AA/BA and he encountered the same fare inversion for PE.

If they change PE to PAG fares, how will they distinguish those from PAG first class? Also, I didn't think We C+ was a real fare class. Isn't it a V/X fare that has been upgraded?

Same e-mail for JFK-MXP on Alitalia
 

I called but got a very confused rep and didn't want to risk having the situation made worse (or taking up time during this hurricane).

Our outbound portion on 11/11 shows a new fare class of G (with no W showing) and, although the email showed Premium Economy stricken and replaced with Economy, the app still shows us in PE. The return flight on 11/19 has us with two entries: a W fare and a "contact Delta" under passenger status and a G fare with our original assigned PE seats. Hate the uncertainty- and the idea of a transatlantic AZ flight in regular coach.

PAG F fares are for domestic only while PAG PE fares are for international only, so that is how they are distinguished. International business uses JCDIZ fare classes. You should be able to have your existing W fare converted to a PAG fare.

What confuses me about this is whether it implies that domestic connecting flights--assuming no broken fares--will be booked into FC if G A P inventory is available. IIRC in the past some Premium Economy fares gave domestic FC connections and the cheaper ones did not, although I don't remember whether they gave C+ seating if seats were available at the time of the reservation/purchase.

OK, makes sense. I just looked at my flights, and it looks like things have been affected, although I didn't see any notification. My DTW-CDG leg is still showing PE and the seat I chose, but the return CDG is now showing standard economy (Y) but the seat assignment is in the PE cabin. I also have flights CDG-VIE-CDG that were previously showing PE, but now show economy (Y). That one s academic I guess since there's no PE cabin, and I believe I would get the same 50% MQM bonus either way. I'm wondering if it will affect my baggage limits though. PE gets 18 kg of carry-ons while Y gets 12. I'm not sure if that would translate to the CDG-VIE legs in any case.

For my trip, I was booked into C+ on my domestic connector legs.

Actually, it looks like it was a problem with the FlyDelta app having out of date info. I logged into the regular website, and it now shows 3 of my 4 AF legs as PE(A) now. The first DTW-CDG leg still shows PE(W) and I still have the same seats. I also noticed that I got the same email that the OP described yesterday. I got one for another trip at the same time so I didn't notice there were two.

EDIT: Still C+ on the two domestic legs.

My anecdotal data:

Last month I flew MSP-CDG-MAN-BOS-MSP, booked on delta.com into PE on the TATL flights. MSP-CDG was on AF; MAN-BOS on VS.

My initial booking showed the Delta codeshares on all flights. The outbound flights were in W; the return flights were in G with the BOS-MSP flight in an F seat.

Before departure I used SkyMiles to upgrade to Business on the MSP-CDG flight. That changed the itinerary to list my flight as the AF flight (not the DL codeshare) and fare code on my itinerary became O, which is an award fare. However my Business seat showed on my delta.com itinerary and on the AF seat map. I received the 150% MQM credit within a couple of days after completing the outbound.

Before the return I again used SkyMiles to upgrade to Upperclass on VS, which changed my itinerary to show the VS flight instead of the DL codeshare but retained the G fare code. I had no problem with getting a seat assignment in UC but ran into problems in getting my mileage credit because VS does not have a G fare; I was getting no credit at all for the VS flight. It took two (fruitless) phone calls and an email to get the appropriate 150% MQM credit. For a while I feared that I had lost about 4500 MQM by buying a mileage upgrade.

I really hope that DL and its partners can straighten out this problem of unaligned fare codes.