Nuhusky

Novice delta question, apologize in advance

if you have an economy ticket say m class or one of the other economy classes and buy an upgrade offer from delta to first class domestic will that change your ticket to f? Trying to understand do you earn mqm now at 100% or 200%?

I’m trying to learn the delta way of life as I convert from aa

xliioper

Unlike AA, only very expensive full J fares earn 200% MQM's on DL (DL no longer uses F class for domestic FC -- J is used for both international D1 and domestic FC). I believe all the upgrade offers book into one of the discount FC fare classes (C/D/I/Z) which earn 150% MQM's. So, yes, you will get a bonus. But it will only be 50%.

MSPeconomist

Agree in general, but note that the fare class is changed only if you purchase the upgrade in advance. At OLCI or on the day of departure, you're just paying a fee for a FC seat, without the ticket being reissued.

Nuhusky

Thanks both. So taking an upgrade offer prior to check in won’t reissue the ticket under the higher fare class?

xliioper

It's the reverse. Taking upgrade offer prior to check-in time results in a re-issue in an FC fare class while doing so at check-in time potentially does not.

mnbp

My guess is that upgrade offers taken before the OLCI window opens (T>24) result in reticketing to the new class of service, but offers taken within the OLCI window (T<24) do not. Is that the distinction?

MSPeconomist

This is my understanding, although I've never tested it to discover the exact timeline.

We should also point out that paying money (or miles at the rate offered) to upgrade only some of the connecting segments in the same direction normally is treated like a seat purchase and doesn't change the ticket to a higher fare class.

Nuhusky

can you expand on this

so say there are four legs in the itinerary and you update only one leg to first. The upgraded leg would not result in a higher fare class and as such not earn mqm bonus over economy?

MSPeconomist

This is correct if you're not upgrading all segments on the same fare component.

For instance, suppose you have a RT from AAA to BBB, with connections in both directions, at XXX outbound and YYY on the return. Assume that you do *not* have a broken fare. Then to get the additional MQMs you would need to pay to upgrade both the AAA-XXX and XXX-BBB segments (or both BBB-YYY and YYY-AAA segments). If you upgrade only one segment on this RT itinerary (or if you upgrade only AAA-XXX and YYY-AAA or only XXX-BBB and BBB-YYY, assuming that you do not have a broken fare or multicity itinerary), DL will treat it like a seat purchase and not reissue the ticket in a FC fare class.

Duke787

That's correct -- and DL upgrades are also non-refundable. I was slated to fly SYD - RDU earlier this year on a business trip and upgraded LAX - ATL (on the 777). The trip was canceled last minute (by work, not Delta) and so I lost the upgrade fee (even though the flight itself was a refundable corporate fare).

Here is what the receipt itself shows for having upgraded just the LAX - ATL portion of SYD - LAX - ATL - RDU (all of which had upgrade offers to either PE for SYD - LAX or F for the rest):

EDIT: Actually I'm not so sure about that -- I'm looking back at my last FCM that I actually flew (SEA - RDU as part of LAS - SEA - RDU at the end of last year). I only paid to upgrade the SEA - RDU portion but I did get the 50% MCM mileage bonus -- and the receipt has the same language as the LAX - ATL one above. I guess it's possible that LAS - SEA - RDU was a broken fare and that's why it posted that way?

Nuhusky

than you. Helpful

MSPeconomist

We should also say that if you upgrade both segments, but do it by picking the segments separately with separate prices (which sometimes can total to less than the cost to upgrade all flights in that direction), it *probably* will be treated as two sequential seat purchases and not lead to a reissue of the ticket, but I don't know whether there have been any reports here that address that situation.

hhdl

I had a BOS-SFO-BOS round trip where originally BOS-SFO was Y and SFO-BOS was C+ (not booked by me). I bought upgrades separately to C+ westbound and a couple of weeks later to F eastbound. No bonus MQM (even though each direction was upgraded atomically).

flyerCO

Correct. In order to get bonus you must be able to select "upgrade all segments." If this isnt available (and it isnt when you're in different cabins per segment) then you're not buying up to a F fare, simply paying a seat fee.

JoelThomas

A few months ago, but I upgraded only LGA-PWM leg and got the MQM bonus on that leg.