We stopped doing that, the feedback was that if you pay 2-4thousand for a seat...the high dollar guy didn't want to sit next to a 199 dollar pax. Plus how do you determine who it will be. Met one guy, who always found the cheapest ticket because he new he could upgarde for virtually nothing at the gate. HNL to MSP

I see this all of the time on flights to/from Hawaii. On these flights, they offer to upgrade coach passengers to first for $250.:cool:

iceman,

I think you asked a fuel tolerance question a few pages ago. There is a tolerance for fuel. On the minimum side you have a "min fuel for takeoff" that is prinited on the flight plan. On the overfill side, narrow bodies can be over fueled by 1000 lbs and widebodies by 1500 lbs with no action taken by the crew. If these limits are exceeded then a call to the dispatcher is in order so you can get an amendment to your flight plan or get a new one. This is a different tolerance than the one on the awabs.

Denny

Just last month, my kids and I got bumped off JFK-TLV in that exact scenario, despite earlier assurances from a ticket counter agent that "we don't do that".

The flight to Tel Aviv had 12 empty seats in first, and coach showed -25/+2 (av/au), or something like that. We got bumped, despite being numbers 1-3 of 20 nonrevs.

As far as I could tell from where I stood, these upgrades were not purchased by the passengers, but were given by the gate agents. (I assume this was done based on Medallion status or ticket price paid.)

I'm pretty senior, so I plan to wait and see what the trips are like before I go anywhere. The trips will have to be very good, or the commute to JFK will have to get really bad, before I leave New York.

If you're junior, it's a good strategy to jump in early, while guys like me are on the fence.

I can tell you that it is DAL's policy not to upgrade tourist fares, but after getting slapped with a 375K fine for involuntary denied boardings they are doing just that.
I talked to a gate agent about it, and her response was if we have a paying passenger that does not have a seat in the back because we oversold it, we will upgrade the highest mileage passenger to First and keep doing this until the jet is full. They do not just take the pond scum from what I was told, there is a little reason and thought behind it, but yes we are giving people a
8K seat for their coach fare and not charging them for it.
Now in Europe they may not do this. It is just here in ATL and in NYC that I have seen this happening and quite frequently.

It's all about yield management, I'm surprised they did not use the software that NW has...it cut the denied boarding way down.

Go talk to your buds at Mecca North and listen to the reasoning behind that.....

Send me a PM

Sounds like the 330's will be looking for a new home? How about those 73N's? :rolleyes: