Originally Posted by Robert Leach (Post 35694660)

The original "rule" was that you had to buy a minimum of a K fare to get upgraded, but there was no capacity control on the upgrades. Buy the K fare, have the right status, and you were upgraded right away (no waiting for an upgrade window). I remember buying a K fare to HNL for around $450 during a fare sale and upgrading it.

Anything below K was not upgradeable. At one point, that meant L, but as you note, there were more and more sub-K discount fares added over the years: L, U, T, X, V come to mind.

The problem for DL from a competitive standpoint back in the day was that other carriers would allow upgrades from any fare (although I don't think it was at the time of booking) and there was pressure on DL to liberalize the upgrade policy. So, we eventually migrated to the all-fare-eligible model, but it was with time windows and upgrade inventory restrictions. It was actually much nicer when you could buy the more expensive K fare and upgrade on the spot.

Originally Posted by obscure2k (Post 35696501)

I loved those original K Fares.

Originally Posted by dw (Post 35689040)

To be fair, a lot of discounted domestic F fares these days are likely cheaper than the Y/B/M fares of yesteryear, and while not refundable, can still be changed without a change fee.

Originally Posted by 5khours (Post 35689244)

Question for Delta Flyers. I mostly gave up on DL about a dozen years ago. Thinking about going back.

Under the new system, what are the overall odds of complimentary upgrades as a Diamond/2MM. I'm guessing I would get upgrades on 99 out of 100 flights.

Originally Posted by WGM (Post 35696068)

There are 2 tables on the page. The first is until December 31, 2023; the second says it takes effect January 1, 2024.

Originally Posted by BigFlyer (Post 35696157)

So, my best guess (and I do mean guess): Someone was paying attention when compiling the chart, as someone paying attention is how the language changed. The portion that says fare class could have been missed when they were making the change to the chart.

On the other hand doing away with fare class as a factor is a major change, difficult to imagine that they wanted to do that. Keeping fare class as a factor encourages people to pay higher fares.

Originally Posted by Robert Leach (Post 35694660)

The original "rule" was that you had to buy a minimum of a K fare to get upgraded, but there was no capacity control on the upgrades. Buy the K fare, have the right status, and you were upgraded right away (no waiting for an upgrade window). I remember buying a K fare to HNL for around $450 during a fare sale and upgrading it.

The problem for DL from a competitive standpoint back in the day was that other carriers would allow upgrades from any fare (although I don't think it was at the time of booking) and there was pressure on DL to liberalize the upgrade policy. So, we eventually migrated to the all-fare-eligible model, but it was with time windows and upgrade inventory restrictions. It was actually much nicer when you could buy the more expensive K fare and upgrade on the spot.

Originally Posted by obscure2k (Post 35696501)

I loved those original K Fares.

Originally Posted by indufan (Post 35696966)

Once upon a time, I had to use influence with corporate travel to buy the K+ when L was available. The only thing I remember differently was that there was still a small amount of capacity control on it but not much. And you could tell in advance if it was available and just pick a different flight if your original choice didn't have availability.

Originally Posted by troyintn (Post 35696623)

I would say 50% being generous. BNA on a Monday morning can have 30 -40 DMs on the flight. Even with the thinning of the elite ranks, there are no seats to upgrade too.

Originally Posted by 5khours (Post 35697672)

If you're at the top of the list, it doesn't matter if there are 3, or 30, or 300 DMs on the flight. The questions really are...

1. What percent of flights have at least one seat that gets a complimentary upgrade.
2. What percent of flights have no more than one 2MM DM on them.

Odds of a UG for a 2MM DM will be approximately 1) x 2).

Originally Posted by safigan (Post 35698897)

At the top of the list are 360s who surely must trump DMs. At any rate, in mid-Jan. I'll give you a data point from a 2MM DM holding an LUT ticket on a 30 DM flight. If DL is truly changing from fare class to cabin, and 2MM trumps 1MM (rather than all MMers are equal), and C+ isn't considered its own cabin, then I predict I'll clear. Otherwise, I have doubts.

Originally Posted by bloc0102 (Post 35699206)

I'm interested to see this tested on Jan 1; have 2 people at the same medallion level buy a ticket within the check-in window. One buys MC, one buys C+ and see where they fall on the upgrade list. Theoretically they'd have the same coach fare class, but should check to make sure. Then, have person that paid MC buy a C+ upgrade and see if they jump up the list. Finally, cancel for a refund.

Originally Posted by sydneyracquelle (Post 35699485)

The C+ upgrade purchase won’t be refundable.