Which domestic DL cabin on AF PE tickets?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: TYS
Programs: Delta, AA, Hilton
Posts: 149
Which domestic DL cabin on AF PE tickets?
Hi all,
Apologies if I missed this in my brief search. I'm getting ready to book some tickets on Air France in PE. The flights will be one domestic leg on Delta metal followed and two international legs on AF metal. I was planning to book through Air France because I will get ~3X the MQDs over booking on DL. When I look the flights up on airfrance.us, it shows the delta cabin as either ECO or AF_ECO. I looked at the details and it shows an A fare class for all legs. When I look the same flights up on delta.com, it shows first class on the Delta flights. Does anyone know if I would be seated in first, C+, or main cabin on the Delta flights if I book these through AF?
Apologies if I missed this in my brief search. I'm getting ready to book some tickets on Air France in PE. The flights will be one domestic leg on Delta metal followed and two international legs on AF metal. I was planning to book through Air France because I will get ~3X the MQDs over booking on DL. When I look the flights up on airfrance.us, it shows the delta cabin as either ECO or AF_ECO. I looked at the details and it shows an A fare class for all legs. When I look the same flights up on delta.com, it shows first class on the Delta flights. Does anyone know if I would be seated in first, C+, or main cabin on the Delta flights if I book these through AF?
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: TYS
Programs: Delta, AA, Hilton
Posts: 149
I booked my flights so I'll answer my own question in case anyone else searches this in the future. The Delta app shows my seats as Unassigned Comfort+(A), seat will be assigned at check in. Luckily it's a short flight on a CR9 so there aren't really any bad C+ seats I can get stuck in.
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
Programs: DL DM, Former AA EXP now AY Plat, AC 75K, NW Plat, Former CO Gold, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 27,042
If you booked through DL you'd get F on the domestic flights. However all partner PE fares only book into C+ for domestic flights.
#4
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: Skymiles Gold
Posts: 643
#5
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: DL DM, UA Gold, Alaska MVP, Bonvoy (lol) Ambassador
Posts: 2,994
Because Delta is an outlier and calls Comfort+ "W" (which is premium economy). When marketing fares for Premium Economy on partners, other airlines are going to look for W availability, not F availability.
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
Programs: DL DM, Former AA EXP now AY Plat, AC 75K, NW Plat, Former CO Gold, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 27,042
DL does it because it's DLs own fare. I highly suspect at some point DL will do away with giving F free for booking PE fares. They only have done so I believe to promote the new PS service.
#7
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Mostly living in the basement
Programs: Newly minted free agent; MR LT(!)TE, HH SE, BA SECM, DL MM, UA PS, 2V Fanboi, CBP GE
Posts: 5,108
IME INTL W booking into domestic F on DL tickets (1) has been around long before "Premium Select" (ie: when buying partner W) and (2) is highly route dependent. As a general rule, short haul segments (where F doesn't sell and you'd probably get a complimentary upgrade anyway) book into F, while long haul (eg: TCON) book into Y/W.
#8
Join Date: May 2015
Location: DCA
Programs: AA EXP, DL FO, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 6,712
Once PE is installed on most of the fleet, I'd guess that they'd have to do away with access to FC simply due to capacity concerns. You can't have every FC cabin sold out weeks in advance, especially on feed-heavy routes.
#9
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: MEM
Programs: Starbucks Green Card
Posts: 5,431
in any case, if they didn't mean for premium select to ticket into F on domestic connections over the long term, they wouldn't have used the P A G buckets.
#10
Join Date: May 2015
Location: DCA
Programs: AA EXP, DL FO, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 6,712
Nope, I still think this is a temporary arrangement. Especially since last-minute FC fares are still often sold, and letting the inventory sell out weeks in advance for what is often a discount price doesn't make sense.
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: TYS
Programs: Delta, AA, Hilton
Posts: 149
Thanks for the info. IIRC, the PE = domestic F only started around 1 October of last year. I had some Air France flights the last week of September booked through DL and got assigned to C+/W then. They actually changed the fares to GAP fares just before I flew, but I wasn't moved to F on the domestic flights. FWIW, booking these flights through AF cost me ~ $50 more than going through DL, but I'll earn about $3600 more in MQD. Since I'm unlikely to meet the MQD spending waiver, it's worth the trade off to me.
#12
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Mostly living in the basement
Programs: Newly minted free agent; MR LT(!)TE, HH SE, BA SECM, DL MM, UA PS, 2V Fanboi, CBP GE
Posts: 5,108
IME it's been around longer than that (on a route dependent basis).
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
Example - flying ATL-JFK-LHR and back with the TATLs in VS PE. The outbound ATL-JFK booked into G, with a seat in FC, but the return JFK-ATL booked into W, with a nice C+ seat. I got this combo after searching for Main Cabin fares but then choosing flights out of the Premium Select column.
If I edited my search and chose "First Class" instead of "Main Cabin" on the search page, I could pick the exact same flights except JFK-ATL booked into A, with a seat in FC, for ~$150 more.
I chose the lower fare as C+ is just fine for me on the domestic hop. And, lucky me, DL is now offering me FCM on that one leg for only $712.50!
#14
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Washington, DC, Chapel Hill, NC (RDU)
Programs: DL Plat (won't hit DM again) 2MM (2.5), HH Gold, PC Gold, Hyatt Plat
Posts: 5,626
Thanks for the info. IIRC, the PE = domestic F only started around 1 October of last year. I had some Air France flights the last week of September booked through DL and got assigned to C+/W then. They actually changed the fares to GAP fares just before I flew, but I wasn't moved to F on the domestic flights.
Almost 4 years ago, booking ORD-JFK-LHR-JFK-DCA, using VS real premium economy I booked into F for the domestic legs. Maybe this was a VS thing? Tickets on 006 stock,
#15