delta help please!!

[essom71]

We are booked to travel from Detroit with Delta on August 20th. I booked 5 tickets together and then added an extra person so I purchased his ticket separately. The problem I have is on the way to orlando is the added person has no confirmed seat. He is 14 and has never flown so I called Delta and asked to have him seated with us and was told they couldn't confirm any seat as yet for him. Should I be nervous that he won't get on the plane or if I do on line check in at 24 hours ahead will we be ok? We have no checked luggage so I was hoping to do this anyway.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Check him in online 24 hours in advance.
If you still can't get him a seat, get to the airport with him EARLY. Four hours priort to departure isn't too early.
If you still can't get him a seat at the front counter, go directly to the gate.
As soon as someone arrives to work at your gate - or an adjacent one - get in line and ask for help.
Absolute worst case, talk to a supervisor about one adult changing places with this teen and going on on a later flight (use ONLY if they were going to bump him).

 

[essom71]

Check him in online 24 hours in advance.
If you still can't get him a seat, get to the airport with him EARLY. Four hours priort to departure isn't too early.
If you still can't get him a seat at the front counter, go directly to the gate.
As soon as someone arrives to work at your gate - or an adjacent one - get in line and ask for help.
Absolute worst case, talk to a supervisor about one adult changing places with this teen and going on on a later flight (use ONLY if they were going to bump him).

Thanks so much. I would hope with him being so young they wouldn't bump him. I would almost be willing to change all of our flights now if that would help but they will charge us $150 a piece I think.

I really don't know what their motivation is to over sell a plane!

 

[seashoreCM]

I am sure they will use heroic means to not bump the 14yo.

I would not change the whole family's flights to compromise my amount of time down at the World and also pay fees for that privilege.

I am quite sure that the volunteer compensation will go to at least a $400. voucher and I am quite sure someone will take them up on that.

Anyone have anecdotal historical evidence of a minor separated from his family and bumped?

 

[DebbieB]

Delta holds some seats for their preferred members. Any of those left will open up 24 hours before. So jump on at 24 hours to do online check-in. Plus seats are held for airport check-in. Before they bump anyone, they ask for volunteers. Rarely is anyone actually involuntarily bumped.

Check the seat charts at least once a day, if anyone cancels a seat may open. Plus if there are any first class seats open, they move up preferred members starting 5 days before. Orlando usually has alot of first class seats open.

Check this website, it shows the open first class & preferred seats on it:

http://www.benedelman.org/travel/dlseats/

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Four hours priort to departure isn't too early.

Personally, I think arriving at the airport for a domestic flight four hours early is ridiculous, seat or no seat. You usually can't even check baggage in that early.

I really don't know what their motivation is to over sell a plane!

Money. All airlines do this. They have historical statistics of how many people book a flight who never show up. If they overbook, they have a better chance of filling the plane. If they didn't make money doing this, they wouldn't.

Don't worry about the 14 year old not getting a seat. He will get one the day of departure.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Um, okay, but as far as I know you can check luggage starting at four hours prior to departure .

At any rate, if the flight is at, say, 6 AM, then no, arriving four hours early is asinine. Common sense indicates that, and Delta does have flights departing this early. But absolutely find out what time the front counters open and be there then.

 

[DebbieB]

You are flying from Detroit, a connecting hub. There could very easily be people whose first flights are late and they miss the connection to your flight. It happened to me last Monday. I was flying PIT-CLT-RIC (USAir). My flight to CLT was delayed 3 hours for mechanical, so I missed my connection in CLT. I was put on the next CLT-RIC flight. So my seat was empty on my original flight.

 

[essom71]

You are flying from Detroit, a connecting hub. There could very easily be people whose first flights are late and they miss the connection to your flight. It happened to me last Monday. I was flying PIT-CLT-RIC (USAir). My flight to CLT was delayed 3 hours for mechanical, so I missed my connection in CLT. I was put on the next CLT-RIC flight. So my seat was empty on my original flight.

Yes but our flight is at 7:30am so I'm thinking there won't be many people connecting on it.

 

[pooch]

Delta holds some seats for their preferred members. Any of those left will open up 24 hours before. So jump on at 24 hours to do online check-in. Plus seats are held for airport check-in. Before they bump anyone, they ask for volunteers. Rarely is anyone actually involuntarily bumped.

Check the seat charts at least once a day, if anyone cancels a seat may open. Plus if there are any first class seats open, they move up preferred members starting 5 days before. Orlando usually has alot of first class seats open.

Check this website, it shows the open first class & preferred seats on it:

http://www.benedelman.org/travel/dlseats/

no preferred members on our flight last year. I paid $69 each for our tickets and got comped to First Class at the gate! Hoping for some Pixie Dust again this year as all of First Class is still open on our 9/4 flight along with 12 Preferred seats! Never hurts to ask NICELY!!