Back in February I wrote about American Airlines offering the cheapest paid upgrades. They were regularly offering prices of $350 to move from coach to business class flying from Los Angeles to Sydney, and for places like Dallas to Seoul.
United’s upgrades were much more expensive for comparable routes. So were Delta’s – you really didn’t see Delta going lower than $599. At Delta $300 is about the lowest you’d expect for an upgrade to premium economy.
Things have changed. Perhaps the market for premium cabin transatlantic flights has softened a bit. I’ve certainly been hearing this. And Delta is now willing to sell upgrades for even less money than American. Not always, of course. But their floor is now lower it seems.
Here’s an upgrade offer from Paris to Seattle for $299.
Delta makes upgrade offers, and if you don’t take the offer there’s a good chance that the price you’re offered will change. There may be offers right after you book your ticket. The price might drop 30 days prior to departure. It might drop in an offer presented to you during online check-in. Some Delta customers have become used to checking for their upgrade offer once per day, even.
There are two ways to see what Delta is offering you:
- Website: Under my trips, click your itinerary ‘details’ and then go to “View/Upgrade Seats.” That pulls up a seat map with upgrade prices.
- Mobile app: Find your itinerary under my trips, pull up the flight details, and then go to “Seat selection” where the seat map has upgrade prices.
For years United Airlines has been known for selling cheap domestic upgrades. They were ahead of the curve in being willing to take almost any amount for a first class seat before awarding it as a complimentary upgrade on domestic flights. Their $59 upgrades are known as TODs or ‘Tens of Dollars’. The upgrades have even been marketed highlighting the number of people waiting for free upgrades you’d be jumping over.
But nobody has monetized their premium cabins the way Delta has. Twenty years ago front cabins domestically were about full with about 10% paid fares. Delta was first to drive sales of domestic first class up over 70% using a variety of pricing tactics including small dollar upgrades (squeezing out complimentary elite upgrades).
Now they have gotten very, very aggressive with pricing on certain flights – selling long haul business class for as little as $299 to customers buying cheap coach tickets. You won’t always get these offers. And if you don’t take more expensive buy up offers, other people might! Holding out for lower prices might mean losing out on the opportunity entirely. But if there are seats left, Delta wants something for them. And their price floor now appears to be even lower than American’s.
More evidence that we’re living in a brave new post-Covid world where people are now often paying to fly with their own money and price matters.
Another greAAt idea stolen by Delta from American.
Tim Dun in shambles
feel free to let us know the number of people that actually get these.
Demand must be crashing. Was wondering how people were booking so many flights that I couldn’t find any award inventory. I’m sure reconfiguring planes to be premium heavy does not help. Guess less people are going into debt to get that insta post.
My sister and her friend went from coach to.business on delta fco to jfk 350 each in May. They are non elite fly once a year passengers
It’s really not that great of a product to begin with. Even at that price.
Are these cheap upgrades on non-refundable tickets?
Great for Delta! I wonder how sustainable it will be. However one looks at it, it is a good for the passenger. Remember to: FLY DELTA AIRLINES-
Sad for GUC holders. Why are people supposed to spend the big munny for Diamond?
UFC has been around for DECADES – 3 of them! AA didn’t come up with, nor did DL just start doing it. Before algorithmic logic started someone in pricing said, “how much extra money can we make?”
To be more clear, you can find some last minute upgrade offers that a week before were at $1000+ then dropped because nobody was buying it! I have been offered upgrades on UA at a level of $900 bucks a week out only to see them drop to $299 the day before! Look at the fare buckets, if I see a P1 on UA that wasn’t there yesterday, it will mean there is an UFC offer that lowered.
@ Gary — Interesting that it is for a CDG flight. It seems everyone is dumping excess inventory for the pre-Olympics period.
Getting harder and harder to justify loyalty. Why spend extra to be loyal to an airline for practically useless upgrade instruments (looking at you AA SWUs), when I can just shop for the best deal and be guaranteed the cabin I want?
At least United has mechanisms for a guaranteed upgrade.
If this is the situation in summer, just imagine what is going to happen come November.
THE WORLD IS ENDING! BURN IT ALL DOWN! This 1 data point speaks volumes. WOW
Thanks Gary my Internet doesn’t pickup the reddit.
You can bet these are only offered to low/no status folks to try to hook them in. Any hight tier flyers are less likely to see them or the offer is at a higher price.
cutting prices is an AA innovation?
“Another greAAt idea stolen by Delta from American.”
Perhaps DL is simply offering some very targeted, time-specific upgrades esp. if business travel to Paris is down during the Olympics
Here’s the problem. No, here’s MY problem. I don’t want to fly transoceanic long-haul in Economy or even Premium Economy. It’s Business class, or nothing. Am I going to gamble that I’m offered a $299 upgrade to J? Hell, no. So this is [potentially] an opportunity for someone young enough (and flexible enough) to endure a 6-12+ hour flight folded up like an accordion to score a cheap upgrade to the wonders of Business Class…but I’m too old for that $#|+ — whether it’s points or cash, it’s gotta be lie-flat Business on a flight that’s any longer than traveling from one (US) coast to the other…
YMMV.
I did this on a QR flight. Last year. Similar price to upgrade to business class. I took it. It was worth it. AF also gave me a similar offer while at check-in counter; I declined. It’s my money, not my employer’s money, so depends on my personal budget.
Re: @Esquiar’s comment (“Sad for GUC holders. Why are people supposed to spend the big munny for Diamond?”):
I agree completely. Not only do you have to qualify for Diamond to get the upgrade certificates but you can only use them to upgrade one category. As a Diamond, that means either paying for or spending miles to get to Premium Select before you can even be considered for usage of a certificate to get to DeltaOne. I would much rather buy a main cabin ticket, take the free upgrade to Comfort+ if available, and see what happens with DeltaOne upgrade pricing. It’s a much better value proposition and if connecting flights are involved, it allows me to pick and choose only those segments that matter to me.
I snagged a $499 or 49k Skymiles upgrade from Main Cabin to Delta One from SEA-LHR earlier this year…no hesitation with spending the Skymiles! It pays to keep checking on upgrade prices!
Reposting Lax Tom’s question – is this good on non-refundable tickets?
Good to see Delta selling these to greate goodwill amongst flyes instead of giving space away to GUCs which are mostly OPM flyers who don’t spend a cent.
Travel is taking a nosedive. I’m flying Chicago to Denver in 2 weeks $69 each way. On a legacy carrier. And I’m renting a Land Rover for nearly the same price as a Corolla. I’m flying Chicago San Fran in August for $170 each way. Again legacy. I’m expecting even better bargains next year. Recession is coming.
@Elaine – yes
I am getting ready to fly from the east coast to Tokyo. My company has just put the crunch on us (although Corp. Policy says anything over 14hrs travel time flies Business class). Yet our division has said no more Business only Main class. Any chance these lowball fares pertain to Tokyo routes?
Could this be something more specific to CDG around the Olympics? Air France said they were taking a financial hit due to the Olympics due to lack of hotel availability (space and pricing) and, presumably, a lack of business travel.
Eniliria posted more detail on it.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/air-france-says-107241091
Crappy article . Rdu to osa no such cheap upgrades to delta one
Was a time I did mileage runs for a couple years. Got old, so did I. I can afford to travel as I need. Need to go to London in August for family, got one way in 1st (on AA) for 66k miles. They were also doing buy miles special, so bought enough to compensate. Overall about 80% off. Thinking about trying Virgin Atlantic way back.
Very much my experience last summer. I booked Delta Comfort and bought an upgrade to a lay flat suite at the gate for $300 ish. That was money very well spent.
DL GUC’s are now worthless.
@Gene, I think you have part of it. It’s not just the pre-Olympic flights. I’m reading reports of many empty seats to CDG through the Olympics, and many empty seats out. The 2024 versions seems to have trouble getting people to come and stay, but Pariseans are delaying vacations. OTOH, the London-Paris trains are full during the Olympics. So, “stay in London, do day/short-term visits” seems a strategy. Part of this might come from a fear of the rioting types thinking the games are a great time for violent protests.
Last year I went to Greece. We bought Premium Economy seats. About a month prior to departure they sent me an offer to upgrade to Delta One for $499. I grabbed it!!! It’s great if I can catch one for less next year.
Meanwhile I get $2,500 upgrade offers…
that is not uncommon w/ the Olympics in other cities
Unfortunately there are no bargain upgrade fares to Buenos Aires!
Jason got it right. This works for domestic (I’m fine flying a transcon in C+/E+ ) but no way I would buy economy and then gamble on TATL or TPAC, especially when the normal upgrade pricing at time of booking is $1k one-way. It’s no different than playing the upgrade lottery using miles.
Demand is weakening, I was able to book AA in Business from ATH-MIA for 54K AA points summer 2025 . Also Air France has been opening up the floodgates, I was able to book MIA to NCE for 48.5K Virgin points for next June. There is availability on many days in J for 48,5K Virgin points. I thought the space was phantom but I called in and had my choice of 2 flights daily??
@Tim Dunn if “that is not uncommon w/ the Olympics in other cities” is a response to my observation about Paris, I will note my reading (we’ll onecarticle out of the UK) suggested that London did have experience this in 2012.
I’m not surprised delta airlines has been falling behind other airlines in price and customer service i just recently quit using delta after they refused to honor two ecredits that I had with them
Jason Brandt Lewis says:
July 1, 2024 at 10:41 am
“…here’s MY problem. I don’t want to fly transoceanic long-haul in Economy or even Premium Economy. It’s Business class, or nothing. Am I going to gamble that I’m offered a $299 upgrade to J? Hell, no. “
I agree word by word. I’d rather pay $3,000 to secure a seat in J than risk not getting upgraded.