Xeno

I found a four hour change (among many other changes today) on the outbound of an international ticket upgraded with GUCs. The agent could not resolve this so I asked for a supervisor.

The supervision told me she could not "overbook D1". I have never heard that before because when DL's change is more than 90 minutes, I have never had to worry about finding upgrade inventory on a new itinerary that avoids a 6 hour layover.

The flights I chose are not literally "overbooked" but her defense was something about this ticket purchased 3 days ago was reissued earlier today.

The super has passed this one through a message system as she could not find a reissue agent to resolve this while I am on the phone. Apparently I will hear something tomorrow.

Having never faced this before, I am not certain what to do if they deny the alternative flights so I would like to hear from those who follow these rules more closely than I do.

pvn

Overbooking D1 and not having upgrade inventory are not the same problem.

rucksack

Xeno

I have never heard this kind of language from DL so I did edit to point out the flights in question were not "literally overbooked". Yet the super insisting in using that term until the call ended.

These are flights in January via AMS so there are plenty of open D1 seats on various routes.

My memory is once this kind of thing was taken to an international reissue agent that I simply had to wait on hold, but now I must wait 24 hours with an uncertain outcome and me wondering if the super understand the actual rules in play.

rucksack

jdrtravel

Agreed. I don't think OP will have an issue in the end. OP: If you don't hear from them tomorrow, I suggest that you call back on Monday during mid-day when more senior and experienced agents are likely to be available.


I don't think this is fully true, or maybe they don't oversell, but there are situations where they will overbook. I don't know under what circumstances they do so, but there have been a few reports on FT of people being involuntarily downgraded due to an overbooked cabin. IIRC, it was always pax on award tickets, and I think without status.

I imagine that overbooking is probably not done in advance (which would clearly be overselling), but perhaps if there are same day IRROPS and a 360/DM or otherwise VIP pax who paid a lot of cash for their flight needs to be rebooked, this would cause DL to overbook a cabin. Then again, maybe if someone walks up same day and wants to spend $10K on a J ticket, DL will happily oversell that cabin, knowing that they will have to refund some miles and probably give a credit voucher worth much, much less than $10K.

Xeno

According to EF, ATL-AMS is J9.

Duke787

Weekends are bad for Delta IT (which is ridiculous but that's for another thread) and schedule changes. Could be connected to that. Would likely have better luck come Monday.

btonkid12345

Certain routes agents or "supervisors" don't seem to want to deplete inventory up front for worry of getting reprimanded somehow, it seems...

I have heard this most often on ATL-AMS and ATL-JNB. I had an award ticket in J with a schedule change and had to HUCA at least 5 times to find someone willing to touch/book ATL-AMS. Hilarious because they cleared every GUC and even NRSAs into J at the gate...

Xeno

I was quite happy with my original ticket. I had a good seat on a 333 MSP-AMS and on the return a 350 for AMS-DTW. All those flights are now gone due to 4 hour changes on both the outbound and return.

RealHJ

I highly doubt that what you claim here is true. If it is, then please explain why does DL often sell "D1" when all the seats are full and pax cannot select their seat? Why does "D1" sometimes (seen it first hand a few times, been in that position once as #3 on the list) end up with a few pax with "SEAT REQUEST" boarding passes and then DL ends up shelling out a few $1000s to VDB some pax from "D1"?

What are you basing this speculation on?

aviatorzz

That is completely incorrect, DL does oversell D1 on many routes. I've had co-workers who were using mileage or weren't DM who were downgraded back to C+ because of oversale in the D1 cabin.

rucksack

I recall Delta expressly stating that they do not intentionally oversell F/J. In fact, a number of Delta employees have confirmed that on this form.

I was careful to say that Delta does not oversell F/J. That does not mean that F/J is never overbooked. As others have pointed out, an overbooked situation in the premium cabin can occur in the event of IRROPS or a schedule/equipment change.

RealHJ

It also occurs when all seats in the F/J are full, but DL still keeps selling more seats. So yes, what I and others were saying here is specifically in regards to overselling - not overbooking due to irrops. The problem (for pax) is that DL is doing too well and too many routes are fully sold out, often weeks (sometimes months) in advance. Rev Mgmnt can't help but keep their hands out of the cookie jar, so they oversell - forgetting about DL's consistently poor operational track record. So even just one oversold seat can turn into a much bigger problem in case of even the slightest irrops.

jdrtravel

You had me with you until this: What consistently poor operational track record? Yes, there have been a few 1 or 2 day major systemwide events over the past few years (primarily due to issues at ATL), but overall my impression is that DL's operations are among the best.