Delta Fare Class Z - SkyMiles upgrades, earnings and FAQs (2024)

Delta Fare class Z is a revenue fare/booking class of service that is marketed as Discount First Class / Delta One on Delta Air Lines. The fare class is considered a discounted First Class / Delta One.

Below is a human-readable explanation of this fare class and the expectations passengers should have when flying with a Z fare class.

How expensive is Fare Class Z?

Fare Class Z is marketed as a discount first class / Delta One ticket, and is the lowest revenue fare class in the cabin. If you’re looking for flights and see Fare Class Z showing as the lowest fare class available, it means the cabin for the flight/route you are booking is nearly empty with only few seats booked on one or more segments of the itinerary.

Sometime in 2021-2022’ish, Revenue management blocked Z-fare inventory for lowest fare sale until they explicitly released select inventory. This move effectively raised the cheapest fare for First Class / Delta One to Fare Class I. It has also been seen that Delta Vacations has access to the Z fare class.

Tickets purchased in Fare Class Z will be the least expensive. Booking this fare class will be challenging:

• Searching for Fare Class Z is nearly impossible through Delta.com and they have deprecated the advanced search feature which used to allow passengers to search by Fare Class.
• It is advised to call into reservations and get aknowledgeable ticketing agentto search your destination for Fare Class Z availability. Unfortunately, getting a knowledgeable ticket agent is very hard post-COVID as the newer agents have not been trained on DL Term or any other system than their point-and-click reservations system. You will have to hang up and call again (HUCA).
• Many frequent flyers are reporting no Z fare availability months in advance, which supports to theory of Revenue management controlling the release of these seats.
• People who manage to book Z fares have reported that the fare class came available a few weeks to month out. The theory behind this is that the Delta One seat sales were lagging behind the forecasted load and thus Revenue Management released a seat or two into the Z fare bucket for sale.
• It is large reported that Delta Vacations has access to the Z fare bucket to hide the cost of a flight into their overpriced “packaged deal”.

If you are a frequent flyer with additional insight or are with Delta seeking to clarify the information provided, please contact me.

2024 is the start a whole new experience with the SkyMiles program. The core of how SkyMiles members earning status has drastically changed, so please bookmark this site and check back frequently.

Complimentary upgrades on Delta Air Lines

Upgrading to Premium Cabins (Delta Premium Select / Delta One)

• There are no cabins of service higher than Delta One.

Official upgrade rules found on Delta.com.

Mileage Upgrade Awards (MUA) changes (as of 08/22/2023)

• It is unlikely to see buy up offers or MUAs because the ticketed fare class is the highest cabin of service available, but Delta's IT has been know to do shady, illogical things like sell you a buy-up to a refundable fare in the same cabin.

Official mileage upgrade awards rules found on Delta.com