tennessetom

A fa told me the other day that delta is changing how this works on Jan 1st. She told me that the change was being driven by employees especially FAs that were tired of dealing with passengers on buddy passes as well as less senior employees that were never able to get seats.

It seems that in the future all nonrevs have to travel with the delta employee and the priority of the delta employee goes down to the level of the person that they are traveling with. I was told there had been several incidents (some of which were well publicized) as well as a general frustration with some behavior that caused a push for this change. I assume it will also make it easier for less senior employees to get seats if more senior employees with multiple companions have their priority status lowered

HWGeeks

So I guess more upgrades for some PMs and DMs if this is true.

tennessetom

I am really not sure what it would mean for upgrades since nonrevs are the last to clear which should mean upgrades have cleared. Where it might add available seats is on delta one routes that are not upgrade eligible minus DM with gucs. I have heard that delta is looking to have some form of fcm for delta one seats especially during slower times of the year but no idea if that is true or something that is being quietly tested.

yohanson

Do you mean Medallion level or some sort of internal employee level?

WidgetTravels

Priority level works that way currently (If on the same reservation). Buddies are always bottom of the list. Active, Retried and family members come before Buddies now. That's not changing.

What is changing is Buddies will no longer be eligible for Business unless traveling with the employee.

Widgets

This shouldn’t have any effect on revenue customer upgrades since those are processed before buddy passes are given seats. Buddy passes are cleared after all employees, retirees, spouses, travel companions and children anyway. It’s going to help reduce incidents of buddy passes making a scene in Delta One.

tennessetom

Ah that makes sense. The fa that was telling me about it was one that I fly with frequently. Last flight I was on with her in delta one three guys came on that were over served one got rather sick in the bathroom which resulted in the loss of a bathroom for the flight. I wasn't sitting near but asked about the bathroom being out of service and learned about what happened

C W

They must really have had problems with behavior. I can't imagine they're losing out on much D1 revenue from buddy pass pax. I'd like to hear some more of the stories.

How awful of person do you have to be to endanger the job of somebody who gave you a free ride in D1 by misbehaving?

SuperG1955

A Buddy Pass is NOT a free ride.

C W

A ride for taxes and airport fees.

AANYC1981

Old news....

TTT

I think buddy passes come with some substantial co-pays. Certainly not close to the cost of a D1 fare, but not small (in the multiple hundreds of dollars range, IIRC).

xooz

Incorrect... charges include a base price plus a mileage based incremental charge topped off by the taxes and fees you mention.

SuperG1955

Correct. And now, with the earlier mentioned restriction of a Buddy Pass holder's ineligibility for D1 unless travelling with the employee, it will make Buddy Passes a lot closer in price to a coach ticket with the coach ticket providing a booked seat, not standby. A long overdue change! ^

C W

Thanks for the correction.

Anyway, doesn’t change my astonishment at people who would misbehave to the detriment of the employee giving them a generous gift.