Basic Economy Clears into C+??
 

I’m sure this is a “thing” so please move my post if it belongs in an existing discussion somewhere.

I’m not a Medallion and haven’t been for years so I have no skin in this game. I book and pay for DL F or C+ if that’s what I want, but looking at the following standby cleared list, I see most of C+ filled with Basic Economy instead of moving all medallion members up and putting the BE passengers in the back.

Even basic Skymiles members on non discounted tickets should have higher priority to be moved up.

I thought Delta IT was pretty advanced so programming all of this to happen automatically should be fairly straightforward


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...07e2eabb1.jpeg

Lazy gate agent or a delayed flight that has to get out asap or a completely full main cabin.

Yeah this is just a gate agent who was lazy or did things out of order (cleared the standby list before clearing the upgrade list -- so C+ showed as empty seats even though they would've been filled if the upgrade list had been processed first).

That said without seeing the upgrade list it's hard to truly pin this on the gate agent. There is a small possibility that the C+ list was empty so it wouldn't have made a difference

This was completed long before boarding, I was at the gate and we had plenty of time for the agent to get it right.

What is the correct official policy to be aware of before I send this in as a complaint? It’s not the first time I’ve seen it happen, so I’m curious if there is an official policy

I've seen it when main is full and no upgrade list, or if there are only middle C+ left and all medallions have declined upgrades.

Since I moved to CLE I fly on a lot of CRJ and EMB aircraft; what the OP described is not unusual. F will go out full, and on many trips only 3 or 4 medallions will be sitting in C+. The rest of the plane are non-status passengers.

I think it’s more than a small possibility. That’s probably exactly what happened.

We don’t have the upgrade list, and we don't even know the route. It’s safe to assume this wasn’t a hub to hub flight, so the upgrade list being emptied is a distinct possibility.

From the seats handed out (almost uniform distribution of A, B, C, D) this looks like an RJ flight, so likely that every medallion, Reserve holder, SkyTeam elite, and corporate flyer ended up in F/C+ (viz. the situation our bicentennial man from SBN relates).

It was a E175 aircraft, and IIRC, only one customer was upgraded into first per the list.

BE can get any seat, including F. If everyone who wanted (not everyone wants to move to C+) is in C+, then C+ can ve assigned if no empty seats in Y. Also note, non-elites don't qualify to be moved up just to open Y for BE passengers. Not sure why OP thinks that.

Judging by length of list nothing wrong happened.

I'd hope that in a circumstance where a BE flyer got an F seat (by virtue of it somehow being the only seat remaining on the plane) the GA would say something to the effect of "don't expect this to happen again" :p

They did the one time I saw it happen. They needed a volunteer to accommodatethe last BE passenger. I volunteered, and was in 1A on an RJ. Passenger got best seat on plane, plus a meal!

I really dislike when this happens, it's a slap in the face to those of us who pay extra for main or C+ to see someone who paid for BE sitting in 1st. Especially when there are silver + medallions who are sitting in the back. I saw it happen yesterday some people on the upgrade list for C+ losing out to those with BE tickets because they went to the gate agent and flirted their way to a good seat before the upgrades auto kick in. I know it happened not only because I could see the seats getting taken and basic next to seats on the standby list, but because I was also sitting next to the gate agent because I was hoping for the 800 dollars they had offered to miss the flight. Unfortunately for me the flight took off without leaving anyone behind.

Lots of Medallions will decline C+ upgrades if they can't get seats together, don't want a middle seat, or prefer exit rows, and any Medallion (even DM) traveling with 2 or more other non-Medallions on the same reservation will not be eligible for upgrades to F/C+, so it's very likely that the system was working as designed. Keep in mind that BE passengers are also ineligible for mileage earning, any status benefits, and will be the absolute bottom of the list for reaccom in the event of IRROPs. For most of us, giving all that up in exchange for a one in a million shot at *maybe* jumping to C+ or F is a poor tradeoff given most flights these days are full up front well in advance of boarding time.

Does it stink when my last-minute $1200 ticket lands me a seat in the back third of the plane while C+ is full of no-status kettles who paid 6,000 miles to upgrade their $250 main cabin tickets? Sure, but it's not a "slap in the face" because DL doesn't fill their cabins from front to back based on a rank-ordering of who paid the most for the flight...