pvn

so you wouldn't mind being moved from C+ to a back row?

MSPeconomist

DCAproducer

DL is marketing C+ as a premium product and in addition to the extra legroom also provides free alcoholic drinks and a snack basket on longer flights. It's up to each traveler to determine if that's worth the price. I regularly see C+ fares just slightly higher than Main Cabin.

DL has done a good job with FCM and pricing flights with attractive F fares. I have transitioned from relying on upgrades most of the time as a PM just a few years ago to I mostly by F tickets. I've flown coast to coast in F a couple of times this year for under 1K (with a connection). I snagged a DCA-LAX D1 ticket in August for $1150 RT. DL has found many travelers will pay this premium.

If you look at the past 40 years of US airlines, this is the best they've ever had it. We'll see if things change the next time the industry tanks. Airlines tend to have a short memory.

ethernal

Yes, I'm pretty ambivalent to either. Depends on the plane too. I'm more likely to accept a middle on an A321 where the seats are a bit wider.

On a 739 I'll take 10B but I probably wouldn't take any others over an aisle in regular Y.

pvn

come on, that's a total dodge of the question

vincentharris

Besides DL and infrequent travelers who purchase it outright i dont think anybody considers C+ to be an upgrade

DCFinanceinFlight

MSP gotta get that post count up!

pgh234

In my anecdotal circle of family, friends, and coworkers that fall within the "once or twice per year flier" group...they all purchase C+ regularly. None of them are big or tall either. I scratch my head Everytime they proudly pronounce they paid an extra $50 for C+ on short flights like PIT-BOS or $100 on PIT-CUN.

SouthernCanada

Please don't beat me up about this but one question I have is, How much of this F percentage increase relates to a positive perception of a stronger economy? Delta started this initiative when the economy was perceived to be on the upswing. People had money and the perception of a stronger economy has shown to increase the amount of money that people will spend on discretionary purchases. When do you think it will return to a more normal value, if at all? 15-20% vs 60%. At some point people will stop paying for a seat that is near 2x more the cost.

ATOBTTR

I wonder how paid C+ would change among some Medallions if it came with a MQM bonus, even say 25%. MQM bonuses are often part of the reason I buy-up to FC. I'd consider buying C+ outright (rather than the "upgrade" at booking if I got a few extra MQMs for it, at least depending on the fare difference (especially when you can tie that in with the SDC flexibility too which right now isn't enough of a driver alone to get me to buy C+ outright). Not sure how many other Medallions fit in the same boat.

s0ssos

Yes. I know someone who doesn't fly frequently, but insists on getting "comfort" seats.
As opposed to someone who flies enough and spends enough to achieve DM without the amex waiver (well, past waiver). He notes he can often just buy F at a cheap enough price, and saves his GPUs for international trips.

The Situation

Your question is a really good question. There really are two factors that have led to the increase (excluding DL's comparison of apples and oranges). One is that DL has reduced the price of F and the other is that the economy is strong which means 1) people have disposable income 2) companies have very generous travel policies and many employees can book F and 3) and there are opportunities to grow businesses because the economy is strong, which often requires employees at the aforementioned companies to travel. I would guess more than half is driven by the economy, but that is a wild guess. When the economy corrects, all three of those areas get cut back and you will have the answer and it will be interesting.

captaink

I'd say that the "once a year flyers always buying up to C+/F" theory has some legs. Every news story about airline ticket prices, holiday travel, etc makes "flying coach these days" out to be unbearable torture, and your average customer doesn't know enough to draw a distinction between the ULCCs and Basic economy fares that are highlighted in news segments and the regular DL economy product (which is an entirely tolerable experience). That scares a lot of once a year fliers into buying up to C+ or First, and Delta makes if VERY easy to do so.

My holiday travel on DL has had worse UG %s of late than I was seeing on my M-TH business trips, and I chalk it up to DL making extremely low buy-up offers on flights that are probably 90-95% non-medallions. I've seen more than a few people sitting up front who must have skipped out on buying personal hygiene products and put that money towards an F buy up. It's a shame no domestic carrier actually enforces any sort of dress code anymore - then DL could deny boarding, keep whatever buy-up revenue they collected, and still have seats for UGs.

DCP2016

Y still seems pretty full to me.

bennos

I think my question would be "why am I paying for a product to get a bonus that would have previously made me eligible to get the product for free in the first place?" In other words, I'm not going to buy C+ for the MQMs, I'm going to ditch chasing MQMs and buy the best product at the price, regardless of carrier.

Back to the original topic, I'm pretty sure DL wants each plane to have exactly one seat that they sell for $96,000. I'm only slightly joking here (and yes, I know, DPJ), but when you look at the shrinkage of the premium cabins (757 26F becomes 20F, 777 45J becomes 37J becomes 28J, etc), it's pretty clear what the intention is. The oddball exception being the INTL W cabin...