Mr. Vker

We just purchased round trip F tickets BWI-MCO over New Year's for $304 all in. They booked in class A (first leg) and D (2nd leg).

Are these instant upgrade booking classes or true first?

This is our first time on Delta and I could not believe the fares. This is fantastic for one of the busiest weeks of the year to Orlando.

fabulousflygirl

The A fare is discounted first class and the D fare is discounted business class.

AndyTLe

A chart I always like to refer to...
http://www.cwsi.net/delta.htm

Mr. Vker

Thank you both. I see what prompted these low fares. Airtran is having a business class sale with fares BWI-MCO as low as $151 each way in Biz Class. (If you don't want Biz class, you can pay $350 each way for coach on the same flights. I'll never understand the airlines.)

mcjava

So the answer to the OP's question is, the A fare most likely is an instant upgrade booking class and the D is a true "front of the airplane" booking class (Probably "business" because the flight number continues overseas, but in reality is a normal domestic first class cabin).

DaDaDan

The answer all depends on the fare basis and fare rules. If you read the full fare rules it will say something like "this fare for coach class of travel" somewhere in there. That will let you know if it's "real" or "fake" first/business. In practice, you can usually tell by the fare basis code. If it starts with "HUP" or something like that, that is the first letter is in the coach series, you're almost certainly on a "fake" first fare.

[RANT]

From my philosophical (and I guess legal) perspective, all of these fares are first class fares, and for Delta to say otherwise is false advertising. If you search for "First Class" these fares show up. The cabin is listed as e.g. "First (A)". You're entitled to all the privleges of first class: priority boarding, check in, lounge access in some cases, etc. So for DL to turn around in certain instances (read irrops) and tell you that you actually purchased a Coach fare is completely bogus.

So, you purchased a real first class seat...and don't let anyone tell you differently.

[/RANT]

Mr. Vker

I completely agree with your rant. I was on the short end of this last year with AA. I didn't know I had a Y-UP. I didn't even know they existed. I simply asked AA's website to price and sell a first class ticket. We flew HNL-DFW-BWI. The plane to DFW was late and they stuck us in middle seats in Y because we had Y tickets. It was very uncomfortable and very poor service.

DaDaDan

Did you at least get some sort of refund out of it? If not, you should take them to the mat on that...including suing them.

Mr. Vker

No refund. They offered the difference between my fare and full fare coach on the DFW-BWI leg. Guess what-full fare coach was more for the day of travel.

DaDaDan

Nonsense. You bought the lowest available First fare. If you wanted to fly in coach, you would have bought the lowest available coach fare.

Personally, I'd take them to court (small claims) if I had to. But, perhaps you've come to peace with it.

Mr. Vker

Deep, deep in the fare rules it said this was a Y ticket and that's all I was entitled to. I was told this while trying to resolve this at the airport. I now play close attention to these details.

Robert Leach

When I personally experience fares like this or read accounts of them, then turn around and hear an airline CEO somewhere saying "Fares have got to go up!" it makes me both smile and cringe. They can cut capacity again and again, yet I'm not sure they'll ever gain control over pricing.

Why is it always feast or famine? In other words, why does it have to be either $304 roundtrip BWI-MCO (ridiculously cheap) or $2000 (ridiculously high for the current service level provided)?

DaDaDan

I understand that. I still believe that it would not be hard at all to convince a judge that if the "big print" says first and the "fine print" directly contradicts that and says coach, it's first.

And, at the very least, it's false advertising.

RobertS975

Remember "Simlifares"? For a little while, you could fly FC across the country for $500 each way, and last minute coach was a hundred or so less.

upgrader

The fare is listed as a BUP fare on FC. Given that the four legs of the RT on DL are all less than 1 1/2 hours and the coach fare is between $150 and $180most of the time on DL it's not so great a deal. You can fly two people in coach for the price of one in F. F definitely not worth it IMHO.