Fare Class Changes
 

I just did some searches for fares on SEA-RDU in December and noticed that First is no longer being sold as FPAG, but JCDIZ. I thought it might just be that flight with an international connection, but it seems to be on several other routes and other days as well. (I checked SFO-SEA and SEA-GEG). Is this a known change or just a glitch?

Just answered my own question. Looks like this is intentional: https://pro.delta.com/content/agency...ed-to-sea.html

This IMO is a plus. AA did this over a year ago. Helps eliminate confusion, especially when dealing with OAL/contract out station agents.

I suspect this will simplify a lot of things. I had noticed that occasionally third-party sites would have labeling mix-ups between Premium Select and First class, based on the same fare codes being used between the two.

This makes a lot of sense. I wonder if we will eventually see domestic first class called something else? Perhaps Premium Select?

At any of the various points when they've been renaming cabins and introducing new cabins int he last few years, it seemed like such a missed opportunity to not rename domestic first to either Premium Select, or perhaps some sort of Business class or something like that.

I wonder if corporate travel programs are an obstacle? There are still people who have first class travel as a benefit, and I wonder if changing the cabin name risks loosing those full F paying customers? This is especially true for partners at consulting firms, CEO's, etc.

Well it looks like this booking class realignment is moving beyond SEA.

During Schedule Change Saturday on November 17, DL should move all domestic flights after January 7 to the new classes.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...267f345c21.jpg
*Apologies for the blurriness of the image

https://pro.delta.com/content/agency/us/en/news/news-archive/2018/november-2018/booking-class-realignment--expanding-beyond-seattle-markets----.html

I guess the one place where this may increase confusion is in the distinction between domestic Delta One and first class routes, particularly on the handful of routes like JFK-LAS and JFK-SEA where some frequencies are D1 and some frequencies are first. Presumably Delta.com will still show the distinction but it'll be harder for third-party sites to show why some frequencies are much more expensive than others (though I'm not sure that most sites would have been showing that all that correctly now, either).

ETA: Actually I guess it looks like they specify that those mixed markets will continue to use the old fare classes on the First services? Which will be kind of odd ... who knows how that plays out over time. Would certainly be another argument for having rebranded domestic First as Premium Select, since the non-D1 JFK-LAS frequencies could have the front cabin marketed as Premium Select just like how some domestic 757 flights to Europe have the front cabin marketed as Premium Select.

So this probably has a big impact on the Delta Reserve Companion Certs since A and I are the only two classes available for purchase for F use.

:confused: I wouldn't think this would affect the Reserve certs at all -- if something previously had an A fare available presumably it would just be re-coded into the I bucket.

At least, I'm pretty sure that's the intent. Whether it goes off without any IT hiccups, similar to what UA is seeing with its own fare class switcheroo shenanigans going on right now, who knows.

2019 Booking Class Realignment
 

I haven't seen a thread yet on this, but Delta is collapsing Domestic First Class fare codes into the Delta One / Business fare codes, with the exception of Domestic Routes that are serviced by a mix of both D1 and normal FC-outfitted aircrafts.

Source: Delta Pro site

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

There have been several threads discussing this point. I'm going to merge this.

3Cforme - Delta Forum Moderator

Thanks, sorry! I must have missed this original thread since I only was looking at threads since 11/19 (when the notice I read about this was posted on the Delta Pro site).