What does Delta do with empty business class seats on NYC > LAX and SFO flights?
 

Hey all,

Ever since Delta eliminated complimentary upgrades to medallion members on NYC > LAX and SFO routes, I've wondered what happens if there are empty business class seats?

I'm a Platinum medallion member. On my upcoming flight to LAX from JFK, they had no Comfort Plus seats left so I had to buy an economy ticket. The upgrade list current says that there are 6 empty business class seats and 0 empty Comfort Plus seats.

So what happens if no one buys those business class seats? Presumably no one is getting upgraded to business class, right? Maybe Diamond medallions? But let's assume there are no Diamond flyers on this aircraft for this example, because I'm having trouble understanding whether Delta will let those business class seats be empty or not. I don't recall EVER seeing an empty business class seat in 9 years of flying with Delta so this is confusing.

Any insights would be appreciated, if nothing else but to see if I might snag a Comfort Plus seat on this flight haha

Thanks!

If there are unsold seats on the day of departure, they'll either go to PM/DM who are using RUC/GUC, non-rev or fly empty.

If Y is oversold and J has seats left they'll likely op-up a few DM/PM's just to not have to VDB/IDB people.

Let them fly empty. They want Delta One to be premium, which is understandable.

You may see more empty in the future because apparently they close the loophole where people where buying G fares such as BOS-JFK-MSP-LAX then SDCing to BOS-JFK-LAX. New rule is cannot SDC to D1 if that wasn't original fare

Eh, I'd be surprised if there was on average one person per flight doing this. At least coming inbound to JFK, the connections board is typically only international flights (for the late afternoon arrivals that I tend to come in on).

To the OP, as a PM you can request RUCs as your choice benefit and use them to upgrade (upgrade inventory required in advance, or space available at the gate) on these routes, or for select fare classes you can (maybe) use miles.

Just like most carriers, the seats go empty. Who in their right mind pays for J if they can get it for free?

D1 is the premium cabin on the premium service. DL is looking at PRASM on a broad scale, not revenue on any one flight.

Its very rare to see empty D1 seats... if there are any left after pax get upgraded at the airport with RUC/GUC, then there are non-revs who get the remaining seats.

If no one is eligible for the seat, it stays empty. Simple as that. It's a actually fairly common occurrence on many D1 routes. The domestic D1 routes often have empty seats in off-peak times.

When did the new rule come into effect??

don't know specifically when but the language reflects it now on the website.

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...l-changes.html

If you have a premium cabin fare, you may make same-day confirmed changes as long as a seat is available in the below scenarios:

• If your original ticket is a Delta OneTM ticket, you may move to any other flight with a premium cabin seat available
• If your original ticket is a First Class ticket, you may move only to other flights with a First Class seat available; you may not move to a flight with a Delta One experience, even if seats are available.

I'm surprised it took DL this long to do it.

I was able to SDC from JFK-LAS to JFK-LAX-LAS a few days ago, so can't be very old.

I was in D1 JFK-LAX this past Sunday. 11 non-revs were in D1 seats and the cabin was full. Which worked out for me, as my D1 seat was broken and they had someone on a buddy pass switch with me.

Dennis

How does one SDC like this on delta? Do you have to call or can it be done online? I have never seen a prompt on Delta.com for a SDC

Yes you must call or ask an agent. Delta would never do something customer friendly such as allow online SDC.