rcs85551

DL has upped the overbooking authorizations on most transatlantic flights - MUC (which usually did not have an overbooking authorization up front) is authorized to go -1 or -2 on many flights.

As of right now, I believe BizElite oversales might become a more common problem - at least for the time being.

Air Brian

I don't understand what you're saying. "Upped the authorizations?" And, why would these become more common in this, the off-season? Thanks for your informative posts.

jpdx

Thanks for all the input. I'm relieved to see that this seems to be an extremely uncommon situation, so I don't see any reason to change my DL PMU-based travel patterns.

I checked DL's Contract of Carriage, and found some surprising rules regarding overbooking and IDB compensation. It appears that confirmed Z space entitles you to compensation in case of denied boarding, and nothing in the CoC suggests that there is a differential treatment of J/I and Z tickets. It is worth noting, however, that one does not qualify for IDB compensation if one is transported on the original flight, even if bumped to a lower class of service. In the case of a "downgrade," DL owes the fare difference between Business and Coach, which, of course is 0 for Z to M.

The CoC also clearly states the priority list, which is not based on $ spent for the ticket, but essentially on time of check-in. That means that, given my check-in hours before, my existing seat assignment, and printed boarding pass, I should have been among those least likely to be IDBed.

Does anyone have experience with domestic "downgrades"?

rcs85551

DL overbooks their flights. They authorize more seats for sale than there are on the plane. If the up the authorizations, they overbook their flights to a higher degree.

As for why this might become more common - DL has had quite good transatlantic loads between Europe and ATL this fall, and authorized overbookings on many flights in the BusinessElite cabin which has not been the place several months ago.

rcs85551

DL's internal regulations see for a DL$ 250 voucher in the case of a downgrade.

In contrast to the international BusinessElite flights, DL does not authorize advance overbookings of their domestic First Class cabin. Hence, overbookings are extremely rare and can only result from irregular operations.

DeltaFlyingProf

That would be very sore to someone who paid 1000$ more to get an M fare to be allowed an upgrade rather than a LUT fare at 500$ (nowadays the difference between a cheapo fare and an M fare easily exceeds 1000$ on a roundtrip). I would think 500$ would be more reasonable, but the frustration and disastifaction of a PM from such an act might cost DL a lot more than that!