Airline Pilot Central Forums - Question regarding standby on Delta (2024)

I'm trying to understand what happened today:

So today I tried hopping on a flight to Istanbul out of JFK. (DL72)
I checked the loads while I was at the airport, on Travelnet, maybe about an hour and a half prior to departure.

The loads on Travelnet looked like this:

Business Av/Au (14/15)
Coach Av/Au (-16/xx) [overbooked, of course]

Here's what's happening: In the past Delta would not bump up coach revenue passengers to Business Class, BUT they are now. I THINK most if not all are medallion flyers, not thats just a hunch. Got bumped off a flight ATL-LGW last year right after they started doing this. SO, to be sure of getting on, really check to make sure that coach isn't way oversold. It sucks, but thats what the powers that be have decided! Good luck!

another thing as told to me by a Delta gate agent is what class you list for as a non-rev matters as well.

if you list for first/business, and there are only seats in coach, then they'll "downgrade" the listing to the coach seat.

however, if you list in coach and there are none available, but first/business is open, the system will not automatically "upgrade" your listing. you'll be left behind. if the gate agent is busy they may not have the chance to change it in the system and help you out.

Thanks.

I bet it's to alleviate not having to give compensation for volunteers during this high peak season. Those $600 vouchers would add up fast and so would the sequential loads. That really kills nonreving in these flights, though. It's too bad, but it's business, I guess.

Tomorrow's loads:

Business Av/Au (4/5)
Coach Av/Au (-16/6)

I'd be no. 3 in the standby list. The airport standby list shows 0.

I'm still gonna try it out. You never know 'til you try, obviously...but I'm thinking it's not gonna work out.

I was thinking of maybe just getting a ZED on Turkish Airlines. I would *imagine* the loads would be better since those tickets are priced WAY higher than Delta's. It's too bad they don't release load info to nonrevers. :(

Suggestions?

Honestly, doesn't look good for you man. Bear in mind that the ASL doesn't populate too heavy until pax start to check in, up to 24hrs prior. So a goose egg is to be expected at this point. DeltaTerm has the magical "unseated" list, and potentially the "6" people that you see on the coach AV/AU list may end up on it as rev pax, ahead of you. They can still sell six seats above the current oversale. Try calling Trukish for the loads, tell 'em you're a non-rev, and they might give you some insite into the loads. Good luck man!

The business seats got snagged by coach pax who were upgraded because of the oversell (probably elite customers, full fare, etc). The cleared list you were seeing didn't show as a standby list, because those were revenue pax without a seat (shows up as HK on travelnet and they have basically #1 priority for seats).

Your plan to get business works well if coach has no-shows and isn't actually oversold... otherwise you'll get left behind.

I was thinking of maybe just getting a ZED on Turkish Airlines. I would *imagine* the loads would be better since those tickets are priced WAY higher than Delta's. It's too bad they don't release load info to nonrevers. :(

Suggestions?

Try going on the PPRUNE forum and see if you can find a Turkish pilot that can look it up for you on pars or their version of deltanet.

I would much rather Zed than fly delta anywhere...can't Zed on TOWOP though :-(

I checked for tomorrow's flight and it says 0 for airport standby. Is this accurate or will some people start popping up later on right before the flight?

Didn't think about that. Thanks. It's BS you can't do ZED on the TOWOP, though.