Delta Seat Assignments-Anyone Else Give Up?

[pumpkinboy]

I fly Delta quite a bit and they are always changing their schedules..so frustrating. Just a tip...you can do your seat selection online at Delta. You can also change them anytime if you want. When I get notified that Delta has changed flight times, the first thing I do is go to their website to check my seats!

Actually Delta sometimes does not let you re-do your seat selection on-line sometimes. For our November trip, they adjusted the schedule 4 times, and we were unable to accomplish the seat reassignment on-line (the site would not allow it); instead I had to call. We have the added complication of a wheelchair-bound child, tho this can be an advantage when dealing with the airline bcs you can always hold ADA over their head. Still that means that instead of adjacent rows as originally scheduled, DS and I are up in the front (ADA section) and DW and DD are back in row 23 on a crappy MD-80 (I'll take a Canadair or Embraer regional jet over an MD-80 any day).

Teh whole calling in for seating thing has got to be costing the airline a whole heap of customer service money tho, so I expect that this will change at some point. Still, I'll take Delta over some of the other legacy airlines' on-line ond telephone customer service.
IMO, United is the worst: the website is pretty much useless, and if you call customer service, you end up on a tour of South Asia and Southeast Asia. Once I had to take care of something with United, and I spoke with folks in Mauritius once, India twice, the Philippines once and then Chicago. The reps in Mauritius and the Philippines were the most useful. But I kid you not, I was on the phone for nearly 3 hours to take care of this problem. And thennI still had to fill out an affadavit and fax it in to them.
Delta customer service is wonderful compared to that!

 

[klmall]

This whole thread is very interesting to me. We booked a trip to Asheville, NC about a month before departure (but still within time to use our FF miles) and not once have they changed a single time of our four flights down or back. I have been checking at least twice a day.

Now maybe it's due to being within 30 days or because we're flying out on the first flight of the day out of BWI or because our flights have connections to big hub cities. But I'm shocked and keep waiting for the shoe to fall!

We're not afraid of losing our choice of seats just the seats in general since we are using our miles to fly.

Anyway, we're leaving soon so I'll find out and let everyone know!

It's a such a shame since Delta used to be our favorite airline!

Good luck everyone!

 

[pk1959]

I am the OP. I took Brneyznfl's suggestion to look at our seats we have assigned to us now (for the moment anyways), and see if I could make any changes for the better, online. On one of our legs, it's a smaller plane with one seat on one side and two seats on the other, and they actually have me on the side with the seat by itself, and my husband across the isle and the seat next to him empty. You would think that Delta would at least keep a couple together since seats were obviously available together. I just don't understand their reasoning in some of the changes that they make. It's like they ask themselves what they can do to make their customers the most unhappy and that is the route that they take. A few clicks of the mouse and I was able to make the changes myself and at least for now we are seated together on that leg, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. We are now shopping for a flight to Vegas in March, and right now Delta would about have to be giving the flights away free for us to consider them. It's a shame because in the past, Delta was our preferred airline.

 

[NotUrsula]

We booked a trip to Asheville, NC about a month before departure (but still within time to use our FF miles) and not once have they changed a single time ...

Most likely it's because you are going to Asheville. The largest number of changes tend to come on the busiest routes or the really unpopular ones; that has to do with changes to the type of plane that the flight is using. On a really popular route they have a tendency to switch to a larger plane, and on a really unpopular route they will switch to a smaller one.

Asheville is kind of in the middle, traffic-wise. Popular enough to get the planes filled, but not so much as to have to frequently expand capacity.

 

[pyrxtc]

I think the worst thing that happened to me besides the three time changes and reassigning of seats was the last one they moved my flight from 745 in the evening till 4 oclock talk about killing my last day at Disney had to make changes with places to eat and what park to go to since i had to be close to the Wilderness lodge i am heading to MK instead of Epcot my final day. I am thinking of switching over to jetblue for my next trip used to fly Song but since delta took it back its gone downhill so thinking of changin airlines in the future

You must have been coming home with me!! I got the same change for dec 5th and I called and although I had to take a flight wiht a stop (originally non-stop) I don't have to leave until 7. It's not my 7:45 but it's not 4 either. going into Boston right??

 

[buzz5985]

This is why I drove to Manchester NH and flew SW our last time to FL.

The last couple of times I booked with Delta - I checked constantly the seat assignments. The last time I checked 2 days before and was all set. I checked the night before the flight and HAD NO SEATS WE WERE FLYING STANDBY. How could this happen when I booked 11 months out?? I got on the plane but my family was all split up. My 7 yo son sat in front of me with strangers. So that bull that Delta tells you about leaving so many seats for family is just that bull. I can't blame people with small children not changing their seats to accomodate people, but I saw parents with kids in thier late teens not willing to change seats. Lucky that the gentleman next to my son was a great guy.

 

[LoraJ]

When we last traveled with them, I checked everything before we left. All seat assignments were there. Well, during our trip, they took our seats away. I didn't notice until we got to the airport and couldn't find my reservation in the machine. It was very nerve wrecking.

Now we'll only fly Delta as a last resort. I've flown Continental many many many times and never had that happen.

 

[Bell30012]

Why couldn't I have read this before booking and paying in full for Delta ticket, yesterday?

Now, I'll have to check daily to insure that my four-year-old and I are still sitting next to each other. I'd hate for her to be at the other end of the plane.

 

[bornwiththeears]

Can they still change your flight after you have checked in and printed your tickets?

 

[pppiglet]

I guess I should go check my flights. We don't go til May, so I haven't been watching them. I figure it's more than likely going to change a few times, so why worry about it now.

 

[KevinM]

I bought our Delta tickets in June for our December trip and they have changed schedules 3 times already. I called yesterday to get seat assignments and we are not sitting together on our first commuter flight into Atlanta. My wife and daughter are in row 7 and I am in row 11. Now we have a 6 hour layover in Cincinnatti on our way home.

I was told they change schedules 4 times a year and this past one should be the last change, but I still check every few days.

I stand corrected. I checked again this morning and my outbound flights from MCO have changed, and once again and I have to call and get seating assignments.

This is really getting old.

 

[Diznyfan68]

Happened to us again too - one 3 minute change and all seats gone. Called Delta ASAP and person I was speaking to couldn't help me and transfered me so the tickets could be reissiued. Every other time I called the person who answered was able to help me out. So now I get transfered from the USA to India and the man there tells me that I still have seats. So I explain to him, very patiently, that they aren't showing online. He suggests I hit the refresh button and low and behold, there are my seats. I thank him and then he goes into this spiel about how I can earn points with them - no thank you, I already have my ressies on WDW property. So he tries to convience me to cancel all my ressies - including rental car - and rebook with them at a premium because I could earn miles. I politely tell him that I am not interested and he wouldn't stop. I finally said thank you but no thank you and hung up.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We have a party of 7 (one wheelchair and one infant) I check every Tuesday and Sunday evening and that seems to be when the changes are made. We are ok with our seats for all but one part of the trip. I tried ot explain to the phone rep that my DD who is in a carseat will not be able to sit in the row in front of the emergency exit alone but they were unable to help me. The nice man siad to wait until we get there and then change it...Ok I will but I have a feeling I will be cahnging it online again on Tuesday when they change the flight times again by 3 minutes......