Question regarding seat availabilty with Buddy Passes
 

Hello,
Im new to the Buddy pass program. I was hoping someone could help me...

I was checking the upcoming flights and trying to decide on what day to go. Problem is, I'm not sure which is the real number of seats available..

On the login site I see numbers under
Av/Au:
Also on the standby list it says "# of seats available"
And then on delta.com it shows empty seats on the "view seats" page
They are always different numbers of available seats Which one should I use/ is more accurate ? Thanks

FT is probably not the best place to be asking this, as we are frequent fliers, paying for our tickets or using miles for awards, not non-revs.

Rest assured, the numbers you see when you log on to your friend's account at travelnet are more accurate and have more details than we see at dl.com. Empty seats on the "view seatmap" page only represents the seats that you can request pre-assignment. It has nothing to do with how many seats DL is still willing to sell, which is not the same as "total # of seats on the plane minus the # of seats sold so far"

The numbers you are seeing represent total sold so far, and total allowed to sell, etc, which is information that normal passengers never have access to.

The travelnet site has explanations of exactly what Av/Au mean, if I remember correctly. Obviously, picking a flight with 180 seats but only 30 sold will be safer than one with 180 seats and 165 sold. The standby list can grow by 10 people easily in the last day or two before the flight, and then non-revs get seats based on seniority, etc, with buddy passes at the bottom.

I suggest you talk to the person who gave you the buddy passes b/c it is their responsibilty to inform you of all those things plus more.

The buddy pass grantor should give you more help--as suggested. The delta.com seats available site is actually rather close to the dlnet numbers as the flight day approaches.
As a buddy pass flyer, you are the lowest seniority unless you travel with the person who gave you the pass- you then travel in his/her category. Generally speaking, you can forget about Monday, Friday and any holiday periods. Some routes are always overloaded- ATL-MCO for instance.
Try tracking the destination(s) you want for the two days preceding your best travel day of the week for several weeks to see the patterns. This is tedious but necessary homework prior to travel.:)

You might also try searching "Buddy Pass" in this forum. Lots of chatter about this over the last few years. Odd that your Delta contact gave you his/her login information. Must be more than just a contact.

That's incorrect information.

The employee/retiree must drop down to the lower priority when traveling with a person on a buddy pass (if they want to travel together). Buddy pass riders can never upgrade to a higher priority.

Your memory is correct but Av = Available seats on the plane and Au = Authorized to sell which is usually a higher number than the Av until the last minute.

As a Buddy pass you will always travel at the lowest possible priority (including below NWA NRSAs based on my recent experiences with my father-in-law.)

I saw a LAX-HNL leg last week go from 35 NRSA listed the night before to 122 listed (and activated) the morning of the flight (for a 830AM flight).

That was my first thought. To see Av./Au. numbers means you have a login to DeltaNet (or TravelNet).

Delta Buddy Passes
 

I was told on Saturday that Delta Buddy passes have been cancelled until 2009. Is that true?

-Dev

News to me (and my wife) but it wouldnt surprise me given what weather has done to the operations across the US this past week.

Certain routes (SLC-CDG, for example) and certain dates/time periods have embargoes where buddy pass riders are not allowed because they will more than likely get stuck for days at a time.

These embargo dates are distributed to all front line folks so that they can catch buddy pass riders just in case the "owner" of the buddy pass forgot about the embargo.

I have heard nothing about a complete embargo for all travel system-wide until 2009.

-b-

The last buddy pass embargo date I'm aware of is 20 Dec 2008. The dates for 2009 appear to be

* Friday, April 3, 2009
* Saturday, April 4, 2009
* Friday, June 26, 2009
* Saturday, June 27, 2009
* Saturday, August 1, 2009
* Sunday, August 2, 2009
* Sunday, August 9, 2009

DKR / JNB / CPT are all embargoed from 20 Dec through 4 Jan 2009

News to me - have a coworker that just flew to Korea on a Buddy Pass with his wife on Friday.

Ok, I understand. thanks.

i love delta buddy passes :) flew FC to alot of nice places

Dumb question -- what is/ was a 'buddy pass' -- Tried a search on the Delta site and drew a blank which may mean that what ever it was is gone.

<lol>

Bob H