Why I'm Excited (And Suspicious) About Delta's New Premium Economy

So if I can book an economy ticket each time and upgrade to business class, why would I bother purchasing a premium economy seat ? Makes no sense.

Maybe it depends on the Y booking class on if it can be upgraded to business, or would it count as being upgraded twice ?

Translation for DL's weaselese : If you're in Y, you can apply Global cert to the "upgrade waitlist process".

It'll attempt J first, and if that fails, it'll attempt W. If that succeeds, you're "upgraded" to W, and your cert is considered used.

Only if both fails would the cert be redeposited back to you. THAT'S the true deval.

It would be AAmazing (but extremely unlikely) that AA would make PEY and guaranteed domestic F (excluding premium 3 cabin transcon) 0.5 of an SWU and regular biz 1 SWU

Progress. I hope!

D1 upgrades only allowed on aircraft with Premium, so I read the T&C as .....
If in Y can use cert to get to Premium
If in Premium, can use cert to get to D1

....which is entirely in keeping with DL behaviour

This is consistent with what DL has recently allowed for GUCs on VS flights, so this makes sense. Though the language is hugely confusing, and as @Henry LAX said, I suspect there is another shoe waiting to drop here somewhere.

Most notably, why would a Diamond Medallion ever use a certificate to upgrade to Comfort+ when Diamonds get unlimited at-time-of-booking upgrades to Comfort+ with a companion already? (And you can only use GUCs for yourself and a max of one companion traveling on the same PNR, so there is never a case where you might otherwise want to do this -- for example Delta GUCs can't be gifted to someone you're not traveling with.)

Nice to see DL's upgrade policy on this. I think AA already had something similar planned, but just had not announced it because they wanted to see if DL would keep Y -> J upgrades. Now that DL has, I assume AA will announce keeping Y -> J SWU's the same.

I've always thought that AA cutting SWU's from 8-4 would mean they would NOT cut SWU use further. I suppose there's still a chance AA comes out with Y -> W SWU upgrades, but I doubt it. If they do, I'm definitely leaving for the UA or DL pastures.

If they don't want people to upgrade to D1, they can just restrict the availability of upgrades while keeping the policy the same. There are plenty of flights where D1 goes out with empty seats and it would silly to deny a DM a use of their GUC in that case.

I am not entirely optimistic that this will be a good thing. I look at BA's product. I don't buy their premium economy because for the price I can often find a flight in business class for a small fraction more. So even though an upgrade may be possible, I rarely find it is much of a value as the 20,000 avios can be used or I can spend $200 more for the J fare which earns more miles.

I wish they would make a premium economy that was worth the asking price. For example if they could get a angle flat seat then I would buy in a heartbeat. But I guess that would require a minimum 60 inch pitch versus what the 38 they are offering.

I do think the amenity kit is a nice touch and will go a long way, especially for those people who do not usually fly in business class.

I'm all for further segmentation of airline seats/classes. I'm flying a cheapish D1 fare next week EWR->MAD ($1900) but normally Int'l J is out of my price range. If i can fly a real prem economy product for a few hundred dollars for than economy then its a no-brainer. For a few inches of extra legroom and 'zone 1' (which is really zone 5) boarding it's not at all worth it.

I am an Air New Zealand frequent flyer and should explain how this has worked for many years.

First the fare levels - this is important:

Business = 2 x Premium
Premium = 2 x Economy

Secondly, upgrade instruments only permit a one class upgrade.

The outcome is that they no longer upgrade anybody from coach to the front of the plane.

And I pay double the coach fare - I buy Premium Economy tickets - so that I can upgrade to the front of the plane and lie down.

Don't you think Delta will "allow" you to upgrade from economy to Business but require 2 GUC's. 1 to Premium and another from Premium to Biz. If there are 3 separate paid classes that's how I figure they will do it. So you are able to do it but it will cost you more certificates.

Genuine question I have looked at the pictures of premium, and I looked at the 360 view on the website, for the life of me I can't see any kinda tray table, and it doesn't look like anything will pop outta anywhere.

Is it just me, am I just missing it, I assume I am if so to anyone who points it out much appreciated.

The big negative as Delta has announced it is this: they will not be offering Comfort+ on Premium-equipped aircraft. And as of now, they are saying no free upgrades to Premium, even for Platinum and Diamond elites.
So this means that a customer who is flying 75,000 miles a year+ is relegated to a 31" pitch totally conventional, totally average (ie: quite uncomfortable) seat for 8 or 10 hour longhauls. As a soon-to-be minted PM, I find that very, very disappointing.
I see almost no value in retaining Delta status if my most grueling flights = the same seats as a once-a-year vacationer on a deep-discount V fare.
It is a very poor way to treat high-tier elites, and will move me to book whoever has the best priced W cabin once Atlantic service has it.

@Eric, This is what I am thinking as well. 2 certs for Delta One, 1 cert for Delta Premium...

As a Diamond (300k/year), 2MM, I find this extremely disappointing. Delta already charges appx $200 more per international itinerary for "Comfort+", when all that gets you is an additional 4" pitch. Obviously, for a Diamond, you get upgraded to those seats immediately for free, so the cost is moot for me. BUT, it makes me shudder to think what Delta will charge for these true Premium Economy seats.

I book my flights usually with no more than a week of advance notice, which means most of my international economy tickets cost around $3k. Another $500-$700 for Premium Economy would just be highway robbery or rather "sky"way robbery, and the only upgrade option is to waste a GUC? You only get 4 of those a year - who would waste them on Premium Economy????

How about this - if you are Diamond (or Platinum), AND you book an H fare or higher, you can be waitlisted for free Premium Economy upgrades as available without uselessly burning a GUC. Those should be saved for Delta One on flights of 12+ hours.

"Complimentary Upgrades are not available." So... that pretty much sucks. Even if you're a Diamond, you can't upgrade to premium as you currently can to comfort+ at check in.

Lame.

Result for me - I try to avoid routes with Premium Select and try to find routes where there is still Comfort+.
Wonder if anybody has been able to talk to Delta about what they are thinking their highest tier passengers will do when they have no upgrade path to a better seat on those routes (since Comfort+ does not exist on all Premium Select flights I checked)

“Complimentary Upgrades are not available.” So… that pretty much sucks. I agree! Delta will lose their Diamond customer as "since Comfort+ does not exist on all Premium Select flights" especially for long time flights.