Delta Preferred Seat Question

[Crazy4Disney06]

What does Preferred seat mean? I was looking at our itinerary for October and since we only have a 35 minute layover I was trying to move our seats as close to the front of the plane as possible so that we can get off the plane quickly. The seats I was able to choose where row 11, however they say preferred. I went ahead and changed our set location, but I'm unsure as to why they are preferred......they are not exit rows
Also we have already booked/paid......will/can these seats cost more?

 

[wdhinn89]

curious also

 

[uva185]

Preferred seats are reserved for Delta Silver, Gold, and Platinum Medallion frequent flyers. I don't believe Delta has the option for non-frequent flyers to purchase these seats. If you select these seats on a third party website you run the risk of losing your seat assignments all together.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Preferred seats are reserved for Delta Silver, Gold, and Platinum Medallion frequent flyers. I don't believe Delta has the option for non-frequent flyers to purchase these seats. If you select these seats on a third party website you run the risk of losing your seat assignments all together.

it was not a third party website, it was Delta's website. I did not purchase the seats when booking, however it let me move my seating assignment to them. They are not front row or even exit row seats, not sure why they are preferred. I did noticed on their website that ( Y and B ) bookings are able to select preferred sets, just not sure why these seats are even preferred.
We do have skymiles cards, just not the credit cards.

 

[uva185]

They are blocked off as a benefit to frequent flyers. Many frequent flyers book their tickets close to the departure date and sometimes the only seats left are preferred seats. This allows frequent flyers the ability to get a seat close to the front of the plane even if they book a day before departure.

 

[bavaria]

Preferred seats are reserved for Delta Silver, Gold, and Platinum Medallion frequent flyers. I don't believe Delta has the option for non-frequent flyers to purchase these seats. If you select these seats on a third party website you run the risk of losing your seat assignments all together.

UA does a 'sweep' every Sunday to remove non-eligible flyers from preferred seating, dumping them with no seat assignment. I tend to agree that there is a risk here.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

I have sent an email to Delta asking about this. Delta's website clearly states that Y bookings are eligible for preferred seat bookings. We are booked in Y category.

 

[uva185]

I have sent an email to Delta asking about this. Delta's website clearly states that Y bookings are eligible for preferred seat bookings. We are booked in Y category.

Well Y bookings are eligible for Preferred Seats so I guess you are in the clear. Since you are booked into Y you might as well upgrade to First Class as it is only 5,000 miles for Y bookings.

Just curious but did you need refundable tickets? A lot of the times (especially on Delta) they sell discounted First Class tickets for cheaper than Y class.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Ok just check again on Delta's website for the leg of the flights that we are book Y it let me choose a preferred seat, for the return flight that we are book U we could not change to preferred seats. We should be ok! Will wait for reply from delta to know for sure.
Thanks for the replies.

 

[Lewisc]

I have sent an email to Delta asking about this. Delta's website clearly states that Y bookings are eligible for preferred seat bookings. We are booked in Y category.

Y category is the fully refundable (expensive) fare category. Most of us are able to book discounted, if not deeply discounted, tickets. You shouldn't have a problem if you have full fare tickets.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Well Y bookings are eligible for Preferred Seats so I guess you are in the clear. Since you are booked into Y you might as well upgrade to First Class as it is only 5,000 miles for Y bookings.

Just curious but did you need refundable tickets? A lot of the times (especially on Delta) they sell discounted First Class tickets for cheaper than Y class.

We don't need refundable tickets, however I don't want to spend anymore on our tickets to upgrade to first class, but it would be nice!!

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Y category is the fully refundable (expensive) fare category. Most of us are able to book discounted, if not deeply discounted, tickets. You shouldn't have a problem if you have full fare tickets.

Nice thing is I booked back in Feb. I really did not pay much for the tickets at all $260 per person!

 

[bavaria]

We don't need refundable tickets, however I don't want to spend anymore on our tickets to upgrade to first class, but it would be nice!!

Y and B fares are typically refundable fares several times higher than people here are willing to pay. Are you sure that you are not looking at the fact that you are flying in the Y ie economy cabin? Is your fare class Y, or your cabin Y?

what uva185 is trying to explain is that a Y ticket is typically expensive ($260 sounds very low for a Y fare, particularly from Oregon) and that a first class ticket can often be purchased for less than the cost of a full fare Y ticket.

Edited I just priced PDX-MCO return on Delta in Y fare bucket for $1,293

 

[uva185]

Y and B fares are typically refundable fares several times higher than people here are willing to pay. Are you sure that you are not looking at the fact that you are flying in the Y ie economy cabin? Is your fare class Y, or your cabin Y?

what uva185 is trying to explain is that a Y ticket is typically expensive ($260 sounds very low for a Y fare, particularly from Oregon) and that a first class ticket can often be purchased for less than the cost of a full fare Y ticket.

Edited I just priced PDX-MCO return on Delta in Y fare bucket for $1,293

If she purchased it back in February for $260 and the return is U class my bet is there was a schedule change and she somehow ended up in Y on the outbound (maybe U on the new flight was full). Thats the only explanation I can think of -- on delta.com it doesn't even refer to coach as Y.

That said if you have 5,000 miles in your account I would definitely use them to upgrade especially since you are flying from PDX!!!

 

[bavaria]

I agree that there is no way she booked Y for $260 on that route (or any route for that matter). If she was rebooked in Y there is a chance that a weekly sweep will catch the seat assignment and drop it as UA does.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

I agree that there is no way she booked Y for $260 on that route (or any route for that matter). If she was rebooked in Y there is a chance that a weekly sweep will catch the seat assignment and drop it as UA does.

I did not book it at that price, was bumped up to Y due to an error on Delta's part. After week booked they changed our flight to leave a day later. Once I called them they put us back to the day we originally had booked only on another flight booked at Y category.
I did get a reply from DELTA they will not DROP our set assignment as we DO QUALIFY for it !!!!!!

 

[bavaria]

You asked a question and we were trying to help. You admit that you did not pay a Y class fare. Sometimes when passengers are rebooked they are not booked into the original fare class. I am simply pointing out that there is a chance that your seat assignments may well be dropped as other airlines do because you did not pay a Y class fare.

I don't really see the need to be upset with us when we were trying to determine what happened, and what the outcome may be.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

You asked a question and we were trying to help. You admit that you did not pay a Y class fare. Sometimes when passengers are rebooked they are not booked into the original fare class. I am simply pointing out that there is a chance that your seat assignments may well be dropped as other airlines do because you did not pay a Y class fare.

I don't really see the need to be upset with us when we were trying to determine what happened, and what the outcome may be.

Where did anyone get that I was upset! I was happy to finally get an answer from delta

 

[DebbieB]

Delta's website does not show the preferred seats if you are not eligible to book them. I am gold medallion but if I forget to login before I go on their site, the preferred seats (light blue) do not show up. Once I login, they will.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Nah, I didn't get the impression she was upset - to me, the "!!!!!!!" makes it seem she's excited!!