At Delta’s Investor Day they laid out a plan to unbundle business class – making the premium experience worse unless you pay more. There’s going to be ‘basic business’ but it won’t just be two categories. Their new upsell rubric is “good, better, best.”
They aren’t quite ready to roll out the new business class sales funnel, but they’re rebranding their fare ladder around three brands—Basic, Classic and Extra—while renaming their cabin. It’s needlessly confusing, and for an airline that prides itself on being the innovator they’re actually copying American Airlines with their economy upsell product.
- Tickets for travel on/after Oct 1 2025 carry the new branding and can be bought today
- Trips flown before that date (or tickets issued before today, May 15) keep the legacy rules.
New Cabin Names
| Old label | New label |
|---|---|
| Main Cabin | Delta Main |
| Comfort+ | Delta Comfort |
| First Class | Delta First |
| (unchanged) | Delta Premium Select |
| (unchanged) | Delta One |
All cabins except Delta Premium Select and Delta One gain the “Delta” prefix.
Three “Experiences”
All shown here for Delta Main; Comfort, First, Premium Select and One launch with only Classic & Extra for now.
| Feature | Main Basic | Main Classic | Main Extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seat assignment | After check-in | At booking | At booking |
| SkyMiles earning | None | 5 mi per $ (base) | 7 mi per $ |
| Cancel & refund | eCredit minus fee | eCredit, no fee | Full refund to original form |
| Boarding zone | 8 | 6–7 | 5 |
| Upgrade priority | Not eligible | Standard | Tie-breaker within status |
| Same Day standby | No | Yes | Yes |
Some nuances:
-
Extra = Refundable: in markets where Extra isn’t offered, the former “Refundable” button remains.
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Geography: Basic and Classic roll out worldwide; Extra starts with itineraries
-
No post-purchase downgrades—you can’t switch from Classic to Basic without canceling and re-booking. Upgrades to a higher cabin keep the chosen ‘experience level.’
Splitting economy into ‘good/better/best’ is a way to get people who are already buying up from basic economy to buy up further, with more miles, flexibility, and upgrade priority – even though only 13% of Delta’s domestic first class seats now go to upgrades.
It’s really weird for Delta to list domestic first class before premium economy in their pecking order. Main Basic is the new Basic Economy, and search results will lump them both into the same ‘main’ price bucket, so you have to click deeper to see the actual price if you don’t want basic economy. That’s something else they copied from American.
And there could be a bit of an Easter egg in their explanatory video, showing an increased spending requirement ($12,000) to hit Gold status.
That’s not something they’ve announced, and mirrors changes rolled back in October 2023 after massive customer backlash. It could have just been careless use of imagery.
Things are going to get more complicated buying and flying Delta starting October 1. There’s a more cumbersome decision gauntlet to run just to buy a ticket and more upselling. Delta clearly thinks it’s worth it for their bottom-line.
This is beyond stupid. Delta first and Delta one to the average person will sound like the same product. And it’s interesting that Delta Premium Select is listed ahead of Delta First. That’s just going to confuse people even more. In terms of upgrade tie-breaking priority, I guess Delta Main Extra is akin to the old days when you could book a full-fare, economy-class ticket and get instantly upgraded into domestic first-class. This is real sneaky on Delta’s part because the reality is the vast majority of people buying a Delta Main Extra ticket will not get upgraded in the first-class, unless Delta copies United’s playbook and starts adding more capacity to first-class and business-class. I am curious if the changes impact global and regional upgrade certificates or Sky Club lounge access. If I recall correctly, a Delta elite with Sky Team Elite or Sky Team Elite Plus statuses cannot access a Sky Club lounge with an economy-class ticket.
Delta would still have me as a fanatically loyal fan if they spent half the effort providing value to engaged frequent fliers that they do giving them and passengers in general a big middle finger.
FNT Diamond – I don’t think there will be as much confusion when you use the booking engine, as only the available classes will show up. If an aircraft doesn’t have D1 or PS, it’s not even going to show up as an option.
What will be interesting is what Delta strips from the business basic fare. My guess is seat assignments and lounge access to match AF/KL. Or, lounge access could be downgraded to a SkyClub instead of a D1 lounge on the basic fare.
Seriously, this article leaves me just as confused as I was before reading it, but actually more confused. It seems like airlines want to make pricing as confusing as possible, right up there with the confusing pricing offered by cable and cell phone companies. We end up paying more because we’re too exhausted from the phases of purchase, check-in, security, seating, and dealing with at least one loud, crazy passenger in-flight. Bottom line, if you catch my drift, is that I’m hyper-confused. Delta needs to change the name of its new program from “Good, Better, Best” pricing plan to “WTF? Please Just Get Me to Atlanta in Time to Make My Connecting Flight” plan.
This is an absolutely terrible and asinine move by Delta. I am a Delta loyalist for domestic flights because of the decent customer service, comfy seats (at least by US airline standards), and simple experience. The whole point of booking a first class or comfort plus seat instead of economy is to get a better seat and to avoid the hassle of nickle-and-diming from unbundling. Just give me one simple price (even if it is at a slight premium) and let me enjoy a trip without working through a big mileage and cancellation policy matrix. Hyper-segmentation like this usually creates confusion and degrades customer service quality.
Eh, whatever. Just like changing the boarding zones, it’s somewhat semantic. Apparently, they do make more money this way, so @Tim Dunn should be pleased. I’ll miss the “+” for Comfort.
@FNT Delta Diamond — On the RUCs and GUCs, I’d imagine you’d need to purchase at least Main Classic (not Basic). I’d also imagine if you’re a Platinum or Diamond, you’d still get the automatic upgrade to Comfort, after booking, unless something there has changed. We’ll see. I’m glad to have already used my GUCs, and I’m not expecting more than Platinum for next year, so, oh well.
I’ve read 3 articles on this and I’m still lost, even w a masters degree.
So, as a Platinum or diamond, what is the cheapest class of service that still gives you the upgrade to comfort when you book the ticket? I dont know which level to purchase – i dont want to pay extra when I get the upgrade, but you dont explain which level is lowest but still gives you the automatic upgrade to comfort (if you are a platinum or diamond). can you pls explain.
Finally, i wish they would put as much effort into thier on-board service as they do w/ all this marketing stuff (first the new Skymiles program, which changed a hundred times, and now this new price structure). Why confuse the customer even more? United has surpassed Delta w/ thier on board service, especially for Elites, with handwritten notes, drinks and even a birthday note. Delta has never thanked me for being a Diamond once on the aircraft. Their new hires really need people skills, as they yell in the PA system to clear the aisles, put small articles under the seat, and its just not welcoming like it once was.
@ Gary — I’m concerned about the apparent 25% increase in the DM requirement. The fare thing is whatever…
You buy a business class seat for the business class experience. Not to figure out what is and isn’t included. Hopefully this fails because I can see the other US2 picking this up if it doesn’t do a face plant.
On my recent nonstop flight from ATL-SFO on a ancient, sold out “payload optimized” Delta 737-900 the monitor in my exit row seat was inoperative so the F/A advised me to merely “watch the one next to me” for five hours. Naturally, this seat is no longer considered premium but is now “Delta Premium” or whatever.
Following the European model. Sigh….
@George – as you likely know many airlines outside the US have already unbundled business class. Have a flight booked on BA in business and they asked if I wanted to pay for a seat assignment. Told them no I am traveling alone and any seat in business works so will wait and see what I get
Expect DL to add seat assignment fees, restrict lounge access and likely add change/cancellation penalties for their lowest level business class when the unbundled pricing roles out
Meanwhile, United continues to invest in their J product while Delta is perfecting Delta Premium Select Basic…
I always just buy refundable F, so they are giving me 2 extra miles per dollar spend when I didn’t even ask for it.
Just one more reason I don’t fly Delta and haven’t in twenty years. Who needs this ka-ka?
I just want to get from A to B in a reasonable amount of time in reasonable comfort for a reasonable fare. (This was Southwest’s strength before it got messed up by a hedge fund.) Now w’ere supposed to be enthusiastic about ‘experiences’. Heaven Help Us!
@aMartinU
Right! I just want an on-time, decently comfortable “experience” whether it is Delta Premium Select Basic or Delta Comfort Plus Extra…
Premium strategy here Gary, let’s see how well it works out for them.
Yay!!!
I always wanted a highly complex way to buy products. Why spend five seconds to buy an airline seat when you can spend 20 minutes reading thick legalese and build tables to understand the options before making one?
Thank you Delta for listening to your customers. I can’t wait to spend all these extra minutes of analysis when doing my purchases. Finally, the days of a simple, five second click, to buy a seat are gone. Good riddance to simplicity!
This is obviously customer unfriendly, but the airlines now have lots of data which shows that the upselling works. Contrary to belief, airline margins are small, and Delta no doubt believes they need every dollar they can get.
I already can never remember what Delta’s names mean. I just want to book business class on partners and I have to guess whether that’s Delta One or Delta Through the Nose or whatever. Delta Premium Select sounds like the name of a whiskey.
Seth
Who is still collecting Delta pesos ? And why ?
I suppose naming them Bad, Really Bad, and Awful – while potentially more accurate – wouldn’t make it past the PR flacks.
I hate delta so much. Can’t imagine why anyone would be “loyal” to them.
My ass is far more chapped about the fact that, henceforth, I shall be subjected to the indignity of mainline pre-departure beverages and most beverages on regionals served to me in coffee cups. Oh, the humanity of first world problems!!!
Is there no end to my suffering???
What are people losing???? To me, it just seems like there are additional buy up options (more miles, higher upgrade priority). It isn’t making others get anything less.
None of this helps Delta build the case that they are a ‘premium’ airline (which they aren’t). I hope the initiative fails and consumers reject what is ultimately a money grab disguised as an ‘improvement’.
Annoying and confusing. Sadly we are stuck flying Delta because it’s the only airline that flies nonstop from our city to the cities where our sons live. So we will remain loyal out of necessity. It’s still better than layovers and wondering if delays will make us miss our second flight.
Welcome to the sky morons program
Like I need yet another reason not to fly this airline?
This is the worst legacy carrier ever to destroy loyalty programs and common sense
Good luck to them I’m a never
And the fools did it at a great time just as travel is going into a slow down
I get it, change is hard, but this really isn’t that big of a deal. Just re-branding. Yes, unnecessarily complicated.
@Parker — Bah! Woe is us!
@Brian — Delta’s still the best of the ‘big three’ in the USA. I mean, I wish jetBlue flew their a321LR Mint everywhere, but ‘we can’t always get what we want.’
@Dwondermeant — Woah, that’s a bit much. Sure, devaluations are not great. If only we could get Congress to legislate actual regulations to enforce relative values within these corporate pseudo-currency programs; but, until then, the airlines, hotels, and banks will continue to move goal posts, so set low expectations. Earn ‘em and burn ‘em. Don’t hoard points. Many of us have gotten plenty of value from Delta and its program over the years.
@cairns — Aren’t you in Australia, anyways? Other than to get to the states, Delta really isn’t a thing for you blokes. Better than Jetstar!