dayone

Would I be charged a change fee if I upfared a purchased discount Y ticket to F?

I found this reply in a seven-year-old thread:

spartan3186

I just up-fared an X fair to First for a total of $94 round-trip and didn't get charged a change fee. Pretty good deal since the FCM was $99 each way!

MSPeconomist

You should not be charged a fee to upfare to a higher cabin class (except that this isn't possible from BE) but you should be charged the (usually $200) change fee to upfare without changing the coach cabin class, for example to upfare to a class that can be upgraded with miles.

Note that even if you upfare to FULL F, the original ticket fare rule restrictions remain, so it's still nonrefundable and only changeable with a fee for most discounted coach ("Main Cabin Experience") tickets.

MCO Flyer

You won’t be charge a change fee. IME, when flying on a connecting itinerary, if you want to UG the entire journey it’s almost always cheaper to call up and pay the fare difference than take two FCM offers. (sometimes just one segment can be more expensive than it would be to just pay the fare difference.) If you are on a non-stop flight, YMMV but a FCM offer could be cheaper than the fare difference.

flyerCO

The system offers both an FCM per segment and an upgrade for the entire direction. The latter is an upgrade to cheapest F available. The first simply an FCM offer. This is why there's a difference between the total of both segments FCM and the offer to upgrade the whole direction. No need to call.

whooperatw

i would disagree here. Quite often my FCM offers for both legs in a single direction or even for all four legs can be 2x or 3x the cost of calling in and upfaring of late. I always make sure to compare the total upfare cost versus any in app or website FCM costs. Also, Delta’s system is now tending to keep corporate codes attached when upfaring which can make a substantial difference in the fare. Do note you may be charged the 50 dollar agency takeover fee if on an agency ticket. This is sometimes waived by request or by the agent, though I tend to not ask all the time to keep from offending the record gods.

Duke787

You definitely won't if you FCM via Delta.com or the app.

In practice I've never been charged a change fee for a true upfare via the phone either -- though I typically call immediately after it tickets (usually a business trip and our policy only allows Y so I book the Y and call DL after it tickets to upfare to F using my own CC).

I agree with others -- I have seen some attractive FCM offers but I have also had a few where the FCM (even combining for both flights) is way out of line with just calling in to upfare. Last year I recall an RDU - SFO trip where the upfare was around $120 for the roundtrip (expensive relatively last minute Y fare but F was wide open presumably because it was a light SFO week for conferences and other stuff) but the FCM was $200 plus in each direction

ijgordon

For a connecting itinerary, I don't think I've ever seen a "full" up fare offer online, it's always segment-by-segment, right?
I know sometimes the segment pricing can be very attractive (e.g., SLC-RDU on a SLC-RDU-LGA itinerary for like $119), and sometimes it can be absurd (e.g., SUN-SLC on SUN-SLC-JFK for like $200.

flyerCO

No it offer both a segment by segment and a update for the entire direction. (All segments is what it calls it)

Once you take an any segment only upgrade, all future offers for that direction of travel will be segment only. You can only do an "all segments" upgrade online if none of the segments that direction have been upgraded.

ijgordon

Interesting, I can't recall seeing an "all segment" option, but then again I don't often buy connecting itineraries in coach. For one I do have upcoming, there's no offer at all, only the option to buy up to C+ or F on the seat map, and it's $170 for the 1-hour segment and $380 on the 4+ hour segment. No thanks. I have to think an up-fare would be less expensive, but I haven't priced it out; it's possible there's only J/D inventory.

MCO Flyer

There is an option that says “bundle and save” for both segments, but for at least the past year, it’s either the same price or 1 cent cheaper if you buy both at the same time.

DiverDave

Today I just purchased my first corporate travel ticket in over a year and a half. I then called Delta to upfare and the agent said it could not be done since it was an agency ticket. The agent insisted that the only option was adding up the segment seat upgrade offers and not refaring the ticket.

I told the agent I had done this multiple times, and the agent said there have been no rule changes.

The seat upgrade offer on the app is about $300 higher than the fare difference between the FC fare for the ticket and the corporate discount coach fare.

I would call customer care and ask, but they are not longer accessible as any number I call goes to the medallion agent line.

I guess I will try calling again at a later date, though I may have mucked it up as RUC availability was open on the outbound and I had the agent confirm that.

Anyway, any upfare experiences lately?

David

xliioper

The rules state the following for upfares on the Delta Pro site --

• The ticket must be reissued by the original issuing agency

MSPeconomist

For a $300 price difference, it could be worth paying DL the fee to take over the ticket, if your employer allows this, and then having the DL agent upfare it.

If you want to upfare, do it soon before the price goes up.

Note that when you upfare a corporate travel ticket, you're paying the coach ticket discount your employer has negotiated plus the fare difference.

DiverDave

Thank you for looking that up, but I don't know what it means. I would understand if it said released by the original issuing agency.

Indeed upfaring a corporate ticket can be expensive, but the agent won't even let me try.

I found a corporate number in ATL that doesn't reroute to the medallion desk, so will try that tomorrow.

Thank you for the responses!

David