I think AA not signaling that they were going to match DL's policy was the straw. For many people, the lack of transcon upgrades on DL (especially for DMs) made AA's EXP a clearer, better alternative in NY. Not that USAir might not change that in the future. In my office alone I can easily total up hundreds of thousands of dollars in business already moved from DL to AA.

 

Excellent point.

 

I always thought this policy change was stupid. Delta is trying to get a bigger presence in the NYC market and then takes away upgrades on long hauls that American still upgrades on. And AA not only upgrades EP's, if they don't get the upgrade they get a sandwich and free drink and usually the FA's will comp them any premium snacks on the manifest and Delta is so cheap they took away even the snack box from Diamond's on that flight.

Two people from my Burbank office jumped ship and went to AA over this policy change last year. They received some kind of fast track or status match and are both EP's now. Even if Delta makes the change and allows upgrades for diamonds and PM's on this route, they will never get those two back. They fly this route one to two times a month and if they don't get upgraded they get treated a lot better on AA in the economy cabin than Delta.

They both fly internationally with family as well (on paid J tickets a lot of times) so Delta is also out that revenue. The one flies twice a year to LHR, one time a year with just his wife and the other time with his two kids, always in J, and use to purchase J tickets. Seeing BA is part of the same alliance AA is and they do LAX/LHR and he has experienced their business class product, there is no way he is switching back to Delta now.

If someone primarily flies JFK/LAX anyway and they aren't getting upgrades, not like the status will do them any good anyway. They may as well fly J8 if they are cheaper or fly AA where they will get better benefits.

 

And read my post below about the two employees in my BUR office that jumped ship. With all these people jumping ship from DL to AA (and I'm sure not that many golds or FO's got upgraded on those flights anyway, so it's going to be higher value customers like Diamonds and PM's) and not to mention the additional revenue they bring in on other flights and Delta started to backpeddle on this policy, and seeing J8 not has a premium product on this route, AA probably realizes it would be a huge mistake to follow in Delta's tracks.

This move by Delta has already given AA two HVC's from my office (between personal and business travel there was probably almost $100K in spend there), hundreds of thousands from your office, and who knows how much from other companies. American has to be happy over this revenue moving to them from Delta and isn't going to want to risk people who fly this route moving over to B8

 

I don't think this policy means any changes for FO's or Gold's. Delta probably realizes how much in revenue they lost from their higher tier passengers that fly this route to AA and with B8 entering this route with a premium product doesn't want to risk losing more revenue to B8.

There were rumors a few months ago that Delta was looking at switching to the sticker system similar to AA's but if that happens it won't have anything to do with the change on this route.

 

The one person who is ALWAYS quick to address the "FREE UPGRADE CROWD" <to use his words>, is mysteriously silent here!

 

J8 = B8 = B6 = jetBlue and not Berjaya Air or Eritrean Airlines???

 

Probably hurt that RA did not call him personally to discuss the matter before the policy was changed.



Remember the mantra... all DL had to do was make the front cabin more "exclusive" and the truly worthy folks would be fighting each other to fill the cabin.

 

Why wouldn't we assume that upgrades will be as on other domestic flights? If you SDC, you're on the upgrade list but if you SDS the GA will probably clear upgrades before standbys and you lose, although I guess you could ask if GIDS is showing empty BE seat so there might be hope at off peak times where in the past GMs and FOs would have gotten upgrades.

 

Maybe DL doesn't want to announce or publish the change because they intend to change back if AA eliminates EXP upgrades on their transcons.

 

I would imagine most Diamonds would be in Economy Comfort where they will get free food, snacks, booze, pillows, blankets and a sleep kit --

http://news.delta.com/2014-06-04-Del...co-and-Seattle

 

You get a wrap and one drink, I've never seen the full sized water bottles nor mid flight snack. When I flew a relatively full SFO-JFK flight last week there were a total of 5 people in the Sky boarding zone. So in practice no, DM's do not sit in EC on those flights, as it seems that even GM and PM customers were avoiding them.

 

I've seen the full-size Dasani bottles and thought they were a nice touch for EC passengers. Not so sure about the Luvo froyo bars -- I was asleep on my only TCON flight in EC this month so might have just missed them.

What a broad conclusion given a sample size of 1 flight. This DM has sat on several TCON flights in EC in the last few months and noticed several other DM and PM luggage tags in the overhead bins as well. There was also the usual stampede each time SkyPriority boarding was called (though, to be fair, who knows how many of those passengers were actually Medallions ).

 

A few months ago, I bought K fare from JFK - SEA and forked over 12,500 each way to upgrade. Well, the upgrades cleared me into J. I wonder if I can ask for my miles back and get put on the airport standby list? Only thing is, mileage upgrades at the gate supposedly never worked in the past.

 

Yes perhaps there was a NOTAM (All Medallions) out to not fly that one flight, or perhaps I'm taking that extremely unusual experience and adding to it that Delta has backpedalled?
FWIW I've flown the TCON routes like 3 times since the change and I have no idea how full SKY was, but the other 2 flights when I looked back form my dirty nasty F seat the Y cabin was the exact opposite of a normal domestic flight- pretty full in Y-, and about half empty in EC.

I'm sorry that DLs apparent failure with this change causes you lament, Lamont.