Fly for (even) less discounts

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07-15-2017, 11:26 AM

The dude

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Fly for (even) less discounts

My parents are wanting to use their pass privileges later this month for the first time and they're understandably a little nervous about traveling standby. They're older obviously and are aren't extremely flexible. So out of curiosity I looked on the "Fly confirmed for less" and "Fly confirmed for even less" discount programs we have.

After looking at round trip main cabin tickets using our "discount" program, I compared the prices to a regular seat booked from Delta.com and the tickets from the regular website are almost $1,000 less than our "discount" program for the same exact flights.

What's up with that?

Last edited by The dude; 07-15-2017 at 11:36 AM.

07-15-2017, 11:32 AM

NoDeskJob

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Quote:

Originally Posted by The dude

My parents are wanting to use their pass privileges later this month for the first time and they're understandably a little nervous about traveling standby. They're older obviously and are aren't extremely flexible. So out of curiosity I looked on the "Fly confirmed for less" and "Fly confirmed for even less" discount programs we have.

After looking at round trip main cabin tickets from Phoenix to Seattle using our "discount" program, I compared the prices to a regular seat booked from Delta.com and the tickets from the regular website are almost $1,000 less than our "discount" program.

What's up with that?

My technique is to look on Orbitz (or any other site). Get an idea of what the ticket prices look like on a route. Then see what DL flight could work. Usually then on Confirmed for Less, they will be cheaper.
If you were to randomly compare though, the prices will be all over the place depending on the time of day

07-15-2017, 11:36 AM

Scoop

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You have to be willing to look at alternate flights, routing, airports, and different days to make this program worthwhile. As mentioned the prices are all over the place, sometimes a good deal, sometimes very expensive.

Scoop

07-15-2017, 12:41 PM

Bait

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Another option is the Delta Vacations site. We get a 20% discount on flights as well as hotel/resort packages. You just have to submit a request to get a code for the discount.

07-15-2017, 06:36 PM

Geardownflaps30

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Quote:

Originally Posted by The dude

It basically means there are no discount tickets available on that flight. They do limit the availability of the discount fares if you read all of the fine print...

07-15-2017, 09:07 PM

The dude

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Thanks for the replies everybody.

I totally understand that they can't always give discount tickets on every flight. If the prices were the same as Delta.com it would just make more sense. What I can't wrap my head around is the fact that the tickets were around $1300 on our discount program and $400 from the regular website.

It actually made me laugh! Just seems weird to me.

07-16-2017, 06:25 AM

Hank Kingsley

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I wish travel net was an accurate tool to use the benefit. 10 to 20 HKs showing up in the last hour is ridiculous. It's routine on my commute, so I don't even attempt to nonrev anymore.

07-16-2017, 06:46 AM

sailingfun

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Hank Kingsley

I wish travel net was an accurate tool to use the benefit. 10 to 20 HKs showing up in the last hour is ridiculous. It's routine on my commute, so I don't even attempt to nonrev anymore.

There is no way 10 to 20 HK's can be normal without showing on the availability page. HK's are confirmed passengers without a seat assignment. They should show up when you check available seats. I find the numbers in other than a irops match up very closely. Add the HK's to the available seats and the number should match or be very close to the available seat number on the first page.
Delta has a new fare level where seats can't be preselected. Everyone of those passengers will be a HK but again they are in the available seat count.

07-16-2017, 10:43 AM

Hank Kingsley

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Quote:

Originally Posted by sailingfun

Last Thursday, my flight went from 6 to 17 in an hour. It's routine, Skywest flights.

07-16-2017, 11:21 AM

#10

sailingfun

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Hank Kingsley

Last Thursday, my flight went from 6 to 17 in an hour. It's routine, Skywest flights.

What was the actual availability showing? It's normal to have a bunch of HK's show up in the two hours before the flight. All the low fare coach passengers can't reserve a seat. When they show up at the airport and check in they become a HK. They should not however be a surprise since they should have been accounted for in the availability count on travel net. If travelnet shows a flight with 2 available seats on a 76 seater however the seat assigned page shows 56 seats assigned you can expect to see 18 HK's show up.