Delta provides more flexible upgrades

Delta Air Lines customers prepared to pay extra for their trip now have new, more flexible ways of avoiding the cattle class squeeze. The airline is now allowing its customers to upgrade to the airline’s Comfort+ extra-legroom seats, or even to first class, as a post-purchase add-on and for a smaller part of their journey. This includes passengers who buy tickets through third parties and allows changes to be made using a different method of payment to the original ticket purchase. The airline uses a return trip from Savannah, Georgia, to Los Angeles via Atlanta to illustrate one of the major changes. Under the old system, passengers could upgrade by direction only. This meant they could travel in the main cabin from Savannah to LA and buy an upgrade to Comfort+ or better on the way back. The new system allows them to buy Comfort+, first class, or Delta One upgrades as an ancillary purchase for an individual segment of their journey. This means passengers on the Savannah-LA itinerary can now buy one product on the short hop from Savannah to Atlanta and another on the longer haul from Atlanta to LA. However, they can only do this on itineraries wholly operated by Delta and where the seats are available. “This is all about consumer choice,” said Rhonda Crawford, Delta’s vice president global distribution & digital strategy said in a statement. “This flexibility is what our corporate travel customers, in particular, have told Delta they want because it lets them select their desired experience, regardless of how or where their ticket was bought.” Delta also announced a new app for SkyMiles Medallion members that allows them to select their own seats in complimentary upgrades or revert to the main cabin if they’re not happy with the seat selected in an automatic upgrade. And in the pipeline for Delta customers is a new choice of destinations thanks to its partnership with Aeromexico. Subject to government approval, the airlines will this fall launch five flights in new markets, add frequency in four markets and upgrade aircraft in two markets. The partners say this equates to a 10 percent increase in trans-border seat capacity by the end of 2017, with growth continuing in 2018. The expansion will see new flights from Delta’s Atlanta hub to Mexico’s Merida and  Queretaro as well as between LA and the Mexican destination of Leon. There will also be new flights from Seattle and Portland to Mexico City. Increased services include a second daily flight between LA  and Los Cabos and a third daily service between New York-JFK and Cancun. Flights from Atlanta to Leon and Guadalajara will also each increase to twice daily.