nrr

This flt had a scheduled departure of 8:40 am, now 9:10 am.
On my last several trips on 325 the plane was delayed, it was being towed from T2 (per GA), this is the first time I got advance notification. [325 has D1 seating]
Even though we departed late, we actually arrived early.

Repooc17

The schedule usually has a buffer built in. There are a lot of factors which can cause flights to arrive early, right on time, or late even if no delays due to mx or wx - runway congestion would be at the top of the list normally for flights departing JFK, but these days, there aren't nearly the same volume as pre-Covid. The flight path, wind speed, and many other factors contribute to the timeliness of arrival.

jrl767

pre-announced departure delays are often attributable to mandatory crew rest ... I don’t know what the FAA minimum is, but if it’s 8 hours, the crew (who in fact could have been scheduled to end the prior duty day any time prior to 0040) actually clocked out at 0110

ijgordon

This warrants a thread?

beachmouse

Load and hold at origin for 15-20 minutes is way, way common for short haul into ATL during peak congestion non-plague times- Wheels up to wheels down from my home airport to ATL is about 49 minutes for most aircraft type but can be scheduled for as long as 1:20 to account for those kind of expected delays.

nrr

On www.delta.com.(NOT the app), there are 4 seat conditions shown: occupied, blocked (middle seat) [shown in white], available [blue] and X (not open for sale—generally used for a D1 seat next to one which is occupied, but also for two adjacent seats in a row...assignable at the gate). At 8:00 am 4/11 nearly the entire C+ cabin is “blue”, the rest off the plate is X or occupied.
No one has purchased C+ on a presumably fully) occupied flt.
In D1 3AB, 3CD are all X, I’m #2 on upg. List so I should get upgraded.
I like flying in D1, so getting upg. Is GOOD, but why aren’t some of 3AB, 3CD open for sale—more money for DL?

cmd320

Strange. EF shows the flight as sold out despite virtually none of the C+ seats selected and only a handful of the J seats. Y- seems pretty full but the premium cabins appear pretty empty. Doesn’t seem like it should have a weight restriction as it’s a 757.

nrr

I’ll be flying in 5 hours and see what really happens at boarding.

ty97

If J and C+ weren't selling but people were still buying Y tickets, DL may have taken the Y revenue over no revenue and will upgrade (or op-up if needed) people.

Just a guess.

nrr

They charge high prices for D1 ($985 for a typical upgrade from Y), but shouldn’t C+ D1 still be offered for sale?

btonkid12345

No. The poster you are quoting is positing:

Assume there are 100 seats on the plane (to make it even and easy to discuss):
*20 in DeltaOne
*20 in C+
*60 in Main Cabin

They sell the 60 seats in Main Cabin 2 weeks prior to departure, and as you point out, DeltaOne is expensive. They want to maximize revenue on the whole plane.

So their system allows them to continue selling up to 40 more main cabin seats (or, if 5 DeltaOne seats and 5 C+ seats sell, 30 more main cabin seats - do you understand where this is going?) so they don’t block people from buying main, even if there aren’t anymore actual seats in main.

Once it gets to the gate, they will upgrade elites as necessary, or even upgrade people with no status, to fill the 100 total seats on the plane. This may be what happened on your flight - the gate will assign the remaining D1 and C+ seats, but they won’t be for sale because they’ve already overbooked main cabin, possibly over by the total number of unoccupied seats in the higher cabins.

Airlines do this so that lack of demand in one cabin doesn’t mean they don’t sell anything.

This happens most frequently on international flights, where they sell more seats in the back than actually exist, up to the total number of seats on the plane, including J. When this happens, they simply “operational upgrade” folks, usually based on status, to J. Make sense?

Do let us know what happens at the gate!

btonkid12345

C+ looks totally full now on this flight - further supporting the theory that they overbooked main cabin. 1 D1 seat for sale, so someone probably cancelled.

D1 is still half empty, which makes sense because they won’t clear upgrades or do OPUPs until the gate.

Hope you get the upgrade! Let us know what happens

nrr

Follow-up (1)a morning flt from LAS to JFK was cancelled, many pax from that flt were moved to my flt and there were still pax left with unassigned seats when we boarded. (2)3 pax were upgraded to D1 being #2 on upg list I flew in D1.
The flight was scheduled to depart at 10:30 pm but actually departed at 12:45 am--I'm starting another thread with questions about 1471 delay.

btonkid12345

Nice update! With the earlier cancellation, no wonder they basically zeroed out this flight.

Did they fill every seat on the plane and not block any?

nrr

(1)When I arrived at the gate the flt had an announced delay, new departure would be 10:52 pm (instead of 10:30 pm)--not a big deal. On the overhead board they were quoting the new departure as 5:52 am GMT, after about 30 min. it was corrected to 10:52 pm PDT.
(2)the 4 FAs for 1471 were working a flt which was due in 15 min--30 minutes later the flt was still going to arrive in 15 min. That flt almost got to the gate, but the departing flt had not left.*
(3)Everyone boarded the doors were closed, but NO pushback--a toilet issue at the back of Y. We departed 12:45 AM PDT, only 2 hours late (after maintenance people were called to rectify the problem).
(4)I believe my flt arrived in LAS around 7:00 pm, shouldn't they have known about toilet issues earlier?
*Separate issue, a few weeks ago I arrived in LAS from JFK on a flt which was 1 hour early but our gate was occupied, so we sat in a taxiway for 30 min., I could see from my window seat lots of (other) empty slots in the DL "concourse"...why couldn't we have used one of them?