NoStressHere

I have done a search and uncovered a few related issues on this, but no answers.

I am booked on a flight in June that currently shows 18 of 24 first class seats unassigned. I have one seat already confirmed and the other waitlisted for first class,with a current coach seating.

Other than the 330/331 days out situation, does anyone have an idea of when/how they decide to release any other seats? Any suggestions to get DL to release the waitlist. PS - I am now a lowly Silver for what that is worth.

the scribbler

In my experience there is absolutely no science to this--could happen an hour from now, could happen at the gate. That said, I imagine that clearing on some routes is easier on others.

Something else to think about here is how the new every medallion gets a free upgrade (possibly a companion too) will complicate getting full domestic F awards off of the waitless once the 100 hour mark is broken.

jeffreyt

Keep in mind too, that the seats may never clear the waitlist. As a PM/MM, I had 2 seats on a LAX-CVG 767-200 flight a few years ago, confirmed in F, but waitlisted six months out for a third seat. It never cleared, even at the gate.

NoStressHere

This is scary. This happens to be a long flight Alaska to ATL, traveling with my wife. Though I could go with the DOUBLE miles to make sure,it seems foolish with 18 of 24 seats still open 6 months out. Actually, the whole plane is about empty at this point.

And adding to the situation, one of the 4 flights is an RJ and will never clear to first anyway.

NoStressHere

Good news. The one segment has cleared. As many have said, no real logic, just happened. In fact, I have taken a real gamble and changed my outbound with one seat confirmed and the other waitlisted. Currently, it shows ONLY 3 b/e seats taken. Gonna hope the other clears, even though I gave up my original 2 seats on a not as desireable connection via CVG.

Erasmus

Other's experiences notwithstanding, I've never had a first award not clear eventually. Granted, sometimes it doesn't clear until the night before.

I've found DL revenue management to be quite reasonable in these situations, but unwilling to give away F inventory until the last possible moment. For instance, I regularly book award F seats BOS/SAN and vv. It's often the case that no award seats are available in Y or F, even though the flights are not full. On more than one occasion revenue management has opened up a coach award seat for me, and then placed me on the F waitlist (which cleared eventually). I have had no luck, however, getting revenue management to open up extra confirmed award F seats.

As always, YMMV.

Janjanjan

I've only done this waitlisting for first award twice and neither time did it clear. I asked a friendly agent to explain and what I was told was that as the flight gets closer, Medallion upgrade requests clear before first class award waitlists. We flew to Anchorage a couple of years ago and had taken a less desireable connecting flight rather than the non-stop because we could get our first class award travel. When we got to the airport to check luggage, a very nice counter agent called the gate for the nonstop to get the gate to clear all medallion upgrade requests an hour early so we could be confirmed on the non-stop flight. Because we were checking luggage pre-9/11, the gate agent would only check on the non-stop if we were confirmed. I realize that routings do matter, but I was told that the Anchorage flights are virtually impossible for first award tickets non-stop due to extremely heavy demand and the fact that business travelers will pay a premium for this routing. But the same agent told me that it isn't uncommon for these upgrades to allow availability at the last minute as happened to us.

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Jan

Cornered in CVG

I honestly think that if this happened to ten different people (FC award waitlist), we would get ten different answers (i.e. how GA handled the situation). This is the only area that I can not figure out how DL handles the situation (who clears and when). We had this discussion awhile back with UDH and said he did not know the correct answer or if one even existed.

NoStressHere

It sure would be great is someone at DL that either works in the "seat release" area, or used to work there would stop in and pass some theories to the rest of us.

Personally I have no problem with DL wanting to get revenue passengers into first, either via outright purchase, or via high fare upgrades. On the other hand, when 30+ seats are sitting open, on a weekend flight that will SURELY open eventually, it would be nice to have an idea.

Just seems silly to hold ALL the cards that close to the vest.

NoStressHere

In looking at the ATL-SEA flight #1963 (sometimes it is flight #159) it seems crazy. Trying to get even one BE award seat on various days with a wide open cabin is impossible. Does not make sense. Skychoice of course is available. And these are all Sat or Sun flights with a low amount of business travelers.

For example:
Sat 1/3 - 37 seats open in BE
Sun 1/4 - 32 seats open
Sat 1/10 - 37 seats open
Sun 1/11 - 36 open
Sat 4/8 - 34 of 36 in main BE cabin open
(back cabin is all blocked currently)
This sort of situation seems to be the norm.

indufan

Sunday has a low amount of business travellers? I don't think I am that unusual.

NoStressHere

Partially true. I used to travel on Sundays often, though it was almost always afternoon or evening, not at 9:50am. Especially when heading west. Still, the same issue pops up on Saturday which must have even less business travellers.

As to your being unusual, I will pass on judgement. Happy New Year.