vincentharris

I noticed ever since I hit PM that FCM seat options have disappeared for me.

Is this caused by the "upgrade" to C+and now I cant be offered FCM since I got a upgrade?

miraclebear2003

In a word, no. I get the C+ upgrades when I book as PM. I still get some offers, but not as attractive as they used to be.

vincentharris

Which begs the question, does that mean DL removes FCM or makes them higher priced the higher medallion level you have?

ty97

As a PM, my offers are there sometimes, others not. Can't really figure out the rhyme or reason much of the time.

I have a flight this weekend and I looked last week: no FCM offer. I looked again Monday and there was an offer. The seat map / inventory available had not really changed so who knows why there was no offer and then there was?

(It was a relatively decent offer, but I felt pretty good about the upgrade chances so didn't bite. Cleared the upgrade at the window).

btonkid12345

Yes. DMs and PMs get higher priced offers. This is because they know what an UG is like and thus DL thinks they may be willing to pay more.

Those getting $19 FCM offers for Florida-ATL are usually inexperienced, have rarely if ever flown F, and DL is trying to "entice" them with a taste of F. Eventually if they accept their offers will price higher too.

ty97

Very interesting. I did not realize this, although it does make sense.

I guess the flip side of that is, we know what F is like and what is / is not worth, which is why I rarely find my FCM offers to be of value.

vincentharris

Very interesting, makes sense, and I have never thought of it that way.

EVERY flight when I was an FO or even a GM had the FCM instantly after purchase. Now none on all my upcoming non F purchased flights.

Dallin Saurey

nice

vincentharris

This starts to make more sense now, I had a Y flight purchased when I was a GM and it instantly had a FCM option (albeit a VERY HIGH price) when I made PM all of F went grey and no offer.

MarkCron

Last year I had a ticket purchased through my company travel agency, and I bought by gf a ticket for the same flight, same price and booking class.
She immediately got $39 FCM offer each way (DTW-PHX), while I was getting a $100+ offer. I called the Gold line (was Gold at the time) and they upgraded both of us at the $39 FCM offer

mridley2

How has this been verified or confirmed by Delta (hah!)? I'm not saying there is not a business case for this practice but I don't think this has been confirmed.

One way to verify would be for two people to be confirmed on same flight with different status and different PNR's. Then you could compare the FCM offers.

Anecdotally this make sense to me as a PM who has not once taken advantage of an FCM offer due to pricing. I have bought First outright on a trip when I want to sit in the front. But for my FCM offers usually on flights booked in advance on LUTVX fares the FCM differential is too rich for my blood.

pauly_long

I don't believe the cost of the FCM (or whether it is offered) has anything to do with status. In my (limited) experience, it appears to me that the system makes the determination on whether to offer FCM (and at what price) based on remaining inventory. It looks to me like they are trying to solve for inventory of F1 or F2 on day of departure, and that's usually what I see for availability at time of check-in.

I fly SJC-SLC almost weekly and have observed for a flight booked well in advance that the FCM offer will start as low as $41, and then it "blacks out" for a couple days, then is re-offered at $96, and then if unsold seats remain inside one week, is re-offered again at $41 until they get to 1 or two unsold seats. The FCM offers typically correlate with fare differences for sale on the website.

What I'm curious is to know is whether they are trying to solve for F1/F2 on all flights, or if they set the target inventory on the basis of route or equipment (or both).

As an aside, the FCM offer amount doesn't change for me based on what fare I've booked - i've had the $41 offer on M fares and L/U/T fares (can't remember if i've had offers on X/V fares).

MarkCron

I just did what you asked about one post above yours.
Note the only difference was Gold booked through American Express Travel ($100+ FCM) vs no status booked on DL.com ($39 FCM).

pauly_long

This is good info. Were you and your companion booked in the same inventory bucket?

MarkCron

Yes, same fare class and price