maggersmagoo

I have an upcoming YCA flight from ATL>HNL. Once the ticket is issued will I be able to pay to upgrade my seat with cash, or only with miles? I don't have quite enough miles to do the upgrade. If I can't pay with cash after ticketing, will I be offered to pay for upgrade at check in if seats are available? I've never tried with Delta, but I'm assuming they are like other airlines in this respect.

readywhenyouare

Those are deeply discounted government fares. I'd be very surprised if they weren't heavily restricted.

ATOBTTR

Fellow government traveler here who also travels frequently on YCA fares. Your ticket will be treated as a full Y fare. You can use miles or other upgrade instruments once it’s ticketed, provided there is availability.

Delta may offer buy-up options just as it does for other tickets. Just be aware that if you buy up with cash, it may well be to a non-refundable FC fare, which would invalidate the changeability and refundability of your original ticket.

ETA: Do understand that mileage upgrade requests on Delta will NOT go to the gate. Annoying but that’s how it is. You can inquire with the gate agent if there is still space available and if they know how to pull a mileage upgrade request and process it. Otherwise it will need to clear in advance, which since government tickets are usually only issued a few days prior, may leave a short window and no upgrade space. One option is you could look into getting it ticketed now if your organization would permit it.

Wrong.....

MSPeconomist

If you have almost enough miles for the upgrade you want, it might make sense to buy the additional miles you need from DL. The price isn't good if you're buying a lot of miles, but it can be valuable to just buy the miles to confirm the upgrade now.

readywhenyouare

Ok I was wrong I'll admit to that. Why the hostilities?

This may be a reason why DL dropped the Y fare priority for domestic complimentary upgrades.

maggersmagoo

Realizing the upgrade is a moot point now as it looks like first class is sold out on the flight I was looking at. I guess everyone is heading to Hawaii for the holidays.

Question ATOBTTR, do Y fares get to choose the "preferred" seats on Delta? My travel system let me choose it, and it says my seat selection is confirmed, but I'm nervous when it tickets that it will boot me out of that seat since I do not have any medallion status. I'm wondering if I should choose a regular aisle seat farther back in the plane. This is a long flight, I would hate to get stuck in the middle.

ATOBTTR

I've never actually flown Delta on a YCA fare without status so I don't know. Delta seatmaps now usually block off seats you aren't eligible to select so if you're showing preferred seats as available for selection, I think you'll be okay but you can always Tweet (Direct Message) or call Delta to verify your seat assignments. You can also pull up your reservation on Delta.com and verify your seat assignments on there. If DL.com shows your preferred seats, then that's another sign that you should be alright.

suvayanr

are you just looking at the seat map? That’ll usually show you a full first cabin even though there are seats open. Do a dummy booking to see actual seats

Often1

The caution regarding converting YCA, which is fully refundable & changeable, into anything inflexible via a cash UG. Make certain that the upgraded ticket will have the same lack of restrictions.

This is a particularly thorny issue for government travel because there are also non-refundable government fares which are significantly less expensive to the taxpayers. If your agency paid for YCA and the ticket needs to be cancelled or changed for any reason, you are in a pickle.

SamOF

There are no non-refundable government fares. There are cheaper govt fares than YCA, but the only difference is lower fare bucket (and they thus require more availability). Same lack of restrictions.

maggersmagoo

I was doing a dummy booking and it said first class is sold out.

I can't see my flight and choose seats on delta.com until the ticket is issued, usually much closer to the actual trip date. I choose seats through our travel system, Concur. Our old travel system would let you choose those seats but then would boot you at the last minute if you didn't qualify for them. I'm not sure how Concur works.

At any rate I'm think of switching to a connecting flight which has lots more FC availability, and if im not able to upgrade at least it'll break up the trip a bit. I've never done a 10 hour flight in coach, and I'm not sure I want to

I'll have to call Delta to find out about the upgrade changing the ticket to nonrefundable. I upgraded and then cancelled a United flight once and got the fare and the miles refunded, but I know every airline is different.

On another note, I purchased a ticket through Concur once and had to cancel the trip. Come to find out it was nonrefundable. My agency still paid for it (through a painful reimbursement process), but I was shocked to learn nonrefundable fares were even offered through the travel system. Lesson learned.

ATOBTTR

Odd. I book my travel through DTS (Defense Travel System) but even if it’s not ticketed, it still generates a PNR that I can use to access the reservation on Delta.com and select seats (well, only regular and preferred; I can’t select C+ until the flight is actually ticketed).

MSPeconomist

Exactly. YCA is last seat availability but HCA is not. Neither requires advanced purchase or ticketing soon after the reservation is made, and both can be changed (although AFAIK SATO charges a service fee every time they touch a ticket), so I always try to do SDC (free for me) instead of contacting SATO as we're officially supposed to do.

ATOBTTR

DL and AS can also change the ticket once you’ve flown the outbound leg. I would assume other airlines are the same way but I haven’t flown any airlines besides DL or AS for government travel in a while. I’ve often had to change my return and I always contact DL directly to do it rather than the CTO because 1) I save the $14 fee each time I need to change 2) I can get through to DL faster than I can the CTO and 3) the CTO often screws it up. Sometimes they initially tell me the fare difference is some obnoxious amount and then I tell them to make sure they’re pulling the GSA/government fares and I’ve never had an issue after clarifying it.

readywhenyouare

Government fares have always fascinated me. Why do airlines give them cheap fares? Usually contractors get away with overcharging the government for their services.