Originally Posted by
thrust
Not defending Parker... but Delta does this extensively, selling targeted upgrades to their frequent fliers at check in. They’d rather monetize that upgrade than give it away for “free”. And, as usual, the frequent fliers ***** and moan and claim they’ll take their business (on tickets usually paid for by their company) elsewhere... which never happens. As the flyertalkers say... “WFBF, Want First Buy First”.
I’d be a fan of our non-rev benefits decoupled from the other employee groups. A certain number of positive-space passes above and beyond D1s, for example. If the FAs want something similar, they can negotiate for them.
Delta tries to upsell coach tickets to First or Econ Comfort at checkin because they won't oversell First/Econ Cmft ahead of time, so often at checkin time the coach is oversold by 12 seats with several in First/Econ Cmft open so first opportunity to upsell a few economy checkins prevents more "free upgrades" to give away.
I think the hub to hub get oversold because as the day goes on (or previous days) and connections are missed, often pax have to be routed through a more proximate hub to make their destination vice the direct flight. On Delta, for example, you miss your ATL-PDX flight you either wait another 5 hrs for next direct flight, or you now go ATL-SLC-PDX and get there two hours earlier.