satellite779

Are miles earned based on the status when I booked the ticket or when I fly it? I assume it's the latter, but I'm planning to book an expensive ticket as a Gold but I'll be Platinum in a week so I wonder if I should wait.

MitjaPod

When you fly. You have to have the status required for bonus miles at the time
of boarding.

MSPeconomist

The status must be recognized in your DL FF account at the flight's scheduled departure time. This can be a couple days or more after the qualifying flights for the status tier have been completed and usually the day following the day that the MQMs or whatever post to your account. It's not enough simply to have already earned the status.

Jayzee3

Please excuse me if this question has been asked before, but I have a question regarding booking partner airline trip using my delta points. When I login to my delta account to try to book a rewards flight, even though it shows availability and intakes all the information, it gives me an error message and doesn't complete the booking. Sort of like "ghost availability". Any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.

RetiredATLATC

While waiting to board/and once boarded DL623 UIO-ATL on September 24, my wife and I observed something that, after over 30 years of aviation experience (ATL air traffic controller (30 yrs)-retired), had us & at least one other passenger concerned.

The pilot was first to arrive to the gate area, followed by the FA's a few minutes later, so far normal.

Approximately 10-15 minutes later the First Officer arrived and looked quite unsteady and severly unkempt and not sure of where to go (obviously could have been his first time in UIO, but his actions didn't seem to be that).

After boarding and seated (2C/2D), the First Officer came out of the flight deck & stood just outside the flight deck in front of the bathroom door and flight deck door. He had most of his shirt untucked, almost down to the back of his knees, his belt hanging out on both sides and undone and his fly completely open where you could see his briefs underneath. Honestly, he looked like he was inebriated & unsteady on his feet.

The passenger seated in 1C was texting someone about his appearance and that she seemed concerned. He stood there for approximately 4-5 minutes talking with the FA's oblivious to his appearance.

The FO went into the bathroom and then back to the flight deck. The woman seated in 1C attempted to go to the bathroom right after and something had happened in there, after the FO had left, that sent her back to her seat with a disgusted look, and mentioned something to her husband and the FC FA.

As I said, I've worked in aviation my entire working life and have spent hundreds of hours on the flight deck observing crew operations/CRM and this is the first time that I was seriously comsidering removing myself & my wife from the flight. I was reluctant to say anything as I'm sure you've seen in the press how sometimes things can be misconstrued and the passengers are removed from aircraft for voicing concerns. I said nothing as the captain seemed ok with the situation.

In the end, the flight arrived on time, and no worse for the wear, but this was unnerving in the moment.

Would you have said something, or should I have said something and possibly been tagged as a problem passenger?

Thanks

CJ

SuperG1955

Glad you got home safe!

The first presumption most of us make in a situation like that is alcohol. There could have been other reasons such as food poisoning or possibly altitude sickness at UIO.

I'd like to think that the Captain wasn't contemplating suicide and wouldn't have flown with an incapacitated FO. However, as I know, there's a bond and a reluctance to possibly end someone's career so one never knows.

I'd have gotten up to use the lav prior to takeoff and probably started a conversation with the FO and tried to ascertain more about his condition before making a decision and if I was uncertain I'd have had a quick conversation with the lead FA and deplaned.

As an aside, I'm a former military ATC and also have too many hours on the flight deck.

Claudia B

Apologies as I have only flown Delta once so am not sure how they do certain things. I have a round-trip flight coming up in 8 days with return flight 13 days later. I'm booked in main cabin. Yesterday I noticed there were a lot of first class and premium economy seats left. I had every intention of paying for an upgrade but got distracted. Today when I went to do so, literally every premium seat that isn't showing as occupied on the seat map now has an X through it as unavailable for all segments of my trip. What does this mean? Are the seats possibility being saved as upgrades for high tier loyalty customers? Thanks!

xliioper

Delta does not disclose the dynamics of when they offer seat upgrade purchases, nor how the pricing is generated. The pricing difference can be higher or lower than simply paying for fare difference to purchase a higher class seat. If you are not seeing any seat upgrade offers, you can use the "Change This Flight" option to see what it would it cost to simply pay fare difference to upfare to a higher class. Note that seat upgrade purchases are non-refundable and non-transferrable, while if you upfare to a higher fare class, the price you paid for the upfare (along original fare) can be used towards a new flight should you wish to make a flight change.

Here is an example of the seat purchase fee being higher than simply paying the fare difference to upfare to First Class. The primary differences between the two are that the seat purchase upgrades allow upgrading a single segment on a multi-segment fare (upfaring is all-or-nothing for all segments on a single fare component), and seat purchase upgrades do not requiring DL re-issuing a ticket. This can be an issue for corporate travelers whose tickets are booked by corporate travel agencies as upfaring requires DL to "take control" of ticket which normally involves $50 takeover fee (and you also need to speak to an agent). Further, the agency can find out you have been monkeying with your ticket which might draw attention and cause issues with some corporate travel policies. This is not an issue for people who book their own tickets with DL and don't go through an agency.

findark

Direct answer is that it means DL is choosing not to offer a buy-up ("sticker upgrade") right now. It's loosely based on inventory, but does not mean that the seats are actually unavailable. As xliioper says, you can always change to a higher cabin, albeit at a different price.

lostlittleladybug

I should have listened to the people who said not to waste my time at the airport! I went to the airport and they passed me around between agents until I found one who had been working there for many years and he said that an e-credit and a gift card could be used. He could apply each of our e-credits, however, I only had one gift card and he said he could not split it between two people. He said it was impossible due to the way the system is set up. He said if I had two separate gift cards, he thought he might have been able to process it. After I left, I spent over two hours on the phone with an agent who was able to finally get it processed for me.

Long story short, you can combine certain e-credits for multiple people and use one or more gift cards, but you have to call and talk to them. Make sure you have all the e-credit numbers, flight information, gift cards, and another form of payment to cover any overage after that. Be prepared for a wait of more than two hours. Explain what you want to do up front. The agent I got was amazing, but she didn't have the ability in her computer system to add the gift card for the second passenger which is why she had to find someone to do it. The agent had to wait in a call queue just like everyone else, which is why it took so long.

lostlittleladybug

I have one more question. I have never flown on a CRJ-900. In first class, with the double seats, will there be room for two backpacks under the seats in front of us? I read somewhere that the overhead bins are somewhat smaller, but that might have been outdated information. Will a standard carry on suitcase with wheels fit? It falls within the measurement guidelines. Do we put one in each bin, or will two fit in one like the bigger planes?

MitjaPod

CRJ-900 is tiny. Tiny overhead bins, narrow seats (less than on a 737 or A320). Standard carry-on does not fit the overhead bin, therefore they will take it away at the gate or before entering the aircraft, for free.

lostlittleladybug

If they check the carry on luggage at the gate or before entering the aircraft, would I have to retrieve it at the luggage carousel once I arrive? That's what I was trying to avoid. What size luggage will fit the overhead bins? What about under the seat? Will we be able to fit two overstuffed backpacks like we did on a bigger plane? The last plane was a 737 and we had a lot of room. If I have to retrieve the luggage anyway, and I get two free checked bags, I might as well take a bigger bag I guess instead of trying to pack everything into the backpack and a carry on.

MitjaPod

The last time they told passengers they will check their luggage at the gate and witnessed it, they told the passangers also to retrieve it from the carousel at the destination airport. But it was not a CRJ-900, it was just because of a full flight on a A21N. Hard to say what will fit under the seat in the bins of a CRJ-900. Small backpack or a sports bag would fit.

MSPeconomist

I've been in CDJ-900s where a standard wheeled carry on bag definitely did fit in the overhead bin and also some (IIRC the older ones flown by Skywest) with tiny bins on the 2 side and much smaller bins (for jackets or small handbags) on the 1 side that were glued shut.