rcs85551

The most interesting thing is that their RPU obviously does not mind having people travel on 60% off fares they dump on priceline.
But when it comes to obtaining status, they seem to have a problem.
What would the status help someone who does not fly them that often? Not much.

jwhite4

One would think that whatever formula RPU uses to determine that a flight(s) might be illegal, should be coded into the reservation system to either prevent or warn you from booking that flight in the first place. Might make life a little easier for everyone.

Jeff

Surfrider

I agree with the suggestion to write your congressmen.

This RPU bit by DL is absolutely ridiculous, rapacious, disgusting, petty, needless, wasteful,...can I stop now?

I've done 'segment runs' on my beloved US occasionally, and NEVER got flak about it, the only time I could not execute it was when one of the segments cancelled or delayed and then they routed me on the most direct/shortest route, still never giving me any lip.

The carriers structure the individual planes to let them fill as many seats as you can at the lowest fares, which is about all they know how to do to try and make money. This is how a lot of these mileage runs with 3-4 connections come up in the first place!!! ALL of those planes must be empty or near empty, otherwise, the fares would jump up very quickly! Of course you take up 3 seats instead of 2 for the same revenue, and that's what has DL so P.O.'d.

But my response is that if they want to discourage extra connections, they need to write routines or logic in their durn software! It should be illegal for them to come after people who have purchased legitimate tickets under THEIR rules, and demand they cough up more money due to DELTA's oversight in it's pricing structure.

There's a great site that lets you call up the true lowest legal fares, very often with a myriad of connections, airlines, and routings. www.itasoftware.com Check it out, I've used it to help a friend get 8 segments for a R/T from ILM to CLE late last year, so he could just make Silver.

[This message has been edited by Surfrider (edited 04-16-2001).]

1K

Wow, and I thought I was the only one to hate/avoid DL! Being around CVG and DL's shameful hub pricing methods have kept me away, but this "RPU" group cements the issue!

Come join the more Friendly Skies of UA! UA just confirmed that they do not mind mileage runs in the last FT chat.

Beckles

Yeah, because none of the other airlines participate in such practices ...

Oh wait, I live in Charlotte, which according to recent studies, has the highest airfares in the country ... I wonder why that is ...

Surfrider

Sure thing, right after Goodwin finds the cash to payoff the politicians like Carty did with the AA-TWA deal so the dadblasted UA/US merger can go thru. MYR is ready and waiting for access to UA's route system via US's nice comfy A319s!!!

Even though there are maybe just a few dozen of us who use this as their base, I have NEVER run across one who doesn't use US every chance they can to avoid DL's pathetic ASA.

(Just couldn't resist another swipe as they did it to me again last Friday - another unexplained, unapologized 1 hr delay. That's 4 in a row.)

nologic

I wonder what the cost/benefit of having this RPU is? It has to alientate/lose customers. No other airline does this.

Beckles

DL's RPU may be going after some offenses other airlines are not, but if you don't think all the other airlines have persons acting to protect their revenue ... well ... I don't know what to tell you, but I'd be willing to bet you AA, UA, CO, US, TW, etc. all have persons who are "protecting revenue".

worldbanker

Other airlines do not call and harass their passengers asking about their itineries like Delta does. Unless of course it is something like hidden cities or nesting, I think it is wrong. All in all, the airline named the price and we pay to fly that route.

I do notice however that other passengers who are new to mileage runs boast about what they are doing and you can see the patience wear off the gate agents faces. Maybe we should come up with a guide for Frequent Flyer etiquette.
Rule #1. Don't ever tell airline employees what you paid for your seat or how many miles you are getting.


------------------
"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

Karmann

What are hidden cities?

Karmann

What are hidden cities?

Karmann

What are hidden cities?

Beckles

A hidden city ticket would be getting off at a stopover on your ticket. For instance, say you want to fly PNS-ATL, but it's cheaper to fly PNS-MSY with a stopover in ATL, you would buy the PNS-MSY ticket and just throw away the ATL-MSY portion and only fly PNS-ATL. Note this only works one-way, because if you have a round-trip ticket and don't fly a segment, they will cancel the entire ticket.

I think that's right ... it's also called throw-away ticketing sometimes ... cause you throw away part of the ticket.

B747-437B

I thought "throwaway" involved buying a RT and using it only as a one-way?

Beckles

That may be the difference between throw-away and hidden city I guess ... throw-away is a R-T ticket where you throw away the return while hidden city is a one-way where you throw away the later segment(s).