# Delta seating - be warned!!



## scrapngen (Jan 14, 2010)

Delta does not care if children and parents are seated separately on planes and won't fix it, even when 3 year olds are seated with total strangers, or 6 yr old autistic boys are rows away from their parents!! Is there a law about this? because if a child is traveling alone I know they have to be near a flight attendant, but what if they are traveling on a plane with their parents?? 
5 families and everyone else on a flight were drastically affected by this craziness.. 

Here's my story:  (very long, but am covering possible questions about things we tried,  in advance)
   if this breaks any posting rules, please edit -  

I flew what used to be Northwest - but is now Delta - to Hawaii over the holidays and wanted to warn people with families about the changes in how they are issuing seats on the planes. Specifically for those who buy tickets via third party companies like Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc...never had this happen when it was Northwest Air.

I made my reservations months ahead and thought I had confirmed seating (emails to that effect, etc). 1 day before the flight I got a new email with different assigned seats for the four of us: 3 different rows all over the plane (from the wings back). As I have two daughters 9 and 11, I called to get the seats to be in pairs at least, so we could have an adult with each child...
My 3rd party company couldn't do anything although they tried. Full plane, etc. Then they finally quoted the fact that they only guarantee a seat on the plane - not seats together or an assigned seat...

Then talked with Delta after wading through the phone system/waiting, etc. They said I could only change our seats at the counter at checkin and only one way at a time. The counter people were able to get us all seats in the last two rows(!) of the plane together on the trip TO Hawaii. Coming home was a different matter entirely.

Plane was overbooked by at least 5 people. HNL to SEA.  5 families who all had at least two children under 10 were scattered throughout the plane - single seats. All of us had our boarding passes taken by the counter "to fix it and get the children to be with at least one other member of family." All families were at the gate at least two hours early - in our case 4 1/2 hours early.

Eventually they started boarding the plane. By this time the various families had figured out that this had happened to multiple people and one adult from each family was hovering at the counter to see what they would do to fix the problem. Plane keeps boarding (none of the families have their boarding passes yet as they were being held at the counter) and we try to ask what we should do? Board the plane and ask passengers to switch on our own since they can't seem to do anything? or wait while the plane loads?? As we finally get their attention the one agent basically hands all the boarding passes back and says there is nothing they can do and we should have taken care of our seats weeks ago if we "cared that much about where we are sitting." She was extremely nasty when she said this. Mind you, everyone had "confirmed seats" that looked fine until the day before when we got final notice - too late -  with "new confirmed seats" that were all over the place. 

So now all these families are the last ones to board with lots of little kids, asking everyone to help us out!! Oh, the plane was already delayed by at least 20 minutes at this point due to the overbooking problem...

My family was not that hard to fix on the plane as our rows were only about 4 apart - still people had to pick up their stuff and move so we could be next to our kids in two rows. However, the mom with the three year old in her arms was in the aisle for a very long time with a couple flight attendants trying to help her get two seats together. She was not about to let that child be in a seat by herself - yay Mom!!

Then the pilot announces that he would love to leave if only people would get out of the aisles and sit down in their assigned seats so that the flight attendants could clear the plane for take-off!!   I'm sure a lot of people on that plane thought that these families were at fault for all the problems by being so "late" to board. I did see that the family with the 6 year old autistic boy had succeeded in getting him seated next to his dad...

So - after you book a flight, make sure you get your seat assignments from the airline's website. Do NOT use the seat assignments from the third party as Delta does not seem to pay any attention to those requests - and issues the seats as late as they possibly can - giving everyone else priority.

Anyone know if there is a law about sitting a 3 year old girl with strangers on a 5+  hour flight????  or any other young boy or girl? Wouldn't they be worried about liability for - well, I can think of several things... 

Anyway...thought I'd give a heads up. Love the tugger who has the D  E  L 
T   A tagline!! Didn't particularly care for Northwest before, but now won't fly that again.


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## Carolinian (Jan 14, 2010)

Just Delta's definition of ''Best in Class''!!!  Yes, NW was a MUCH better airline!


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## Transit (Jan 14, 2010)

Flying just isn't fun anymore. Being at the mercy of airlines that do whatever they want to you makes airline travel seem like such a chore.


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## dmbrand (Jan 14, 2010)

I am glad you posted this.  I don't have small children anymore, but passing this info onto other potential Delta customers will be beneficial.


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## scrapngen (Jan 14, 2010)

I even heard some of the couples traveling were split up, but at least as an adult, you can take care of yourself. IF you look at the seating chart on their site, you'll see that they reserve the aisle and window seats for last minute FF's so only the middle seats are available until you get behind the wing. I'm sure this has a lot to do with strange seating!!


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## Stricky (Jan 14, 2010)

This is why I only fly first class with my family of 5.



HAHAHA I wish.




I would say 95% of all travel nightmares are airline stories. I went to the airport to return home from Ireland only to find out the airline was on strike (Air lingus). What a great day that was.


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## thheath (Jan 14, 2010)

In reading your post I didn't read anywhere that you had assigned seats with seat numbers when you booked with the third party.  I only read you "thought" you had seats together.

If you did then shame on Delta if not then shame on you.  

If I book with a third party I immediately call the airline and make seat assignments to my liking.

Like most I go to great lengths to secure the seat I want, especially on long flights.  I would be highly upset to give up my aisle seat for a middle one because of someone elses lack of planning or last minute booking; especially if I am already seated and settled in.


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## camachinist (Jan 14, 2010)

OP, I sympathize. I've seen a lot of this, and it is not carrier-specific.

From your description of the HNL-SEA flight, it sounds like more was going on than an oversell, especially in light of the late e-mail with new seat assignments. There's no reason to do that for a mere oversell. Airlines oversell (or attempt to sell) nearly every plane and often not just economy class. My bet is you had an equipment swap. The only times I've had issues like you describe is when we standby (without confirmed seats) and when there are equipment swaps. I had one recently at IAD where they downguaged a 777, which had a mechanical, to a 767 and ended up with a ~70 pax 'oversell'. I was fortunate; as a 1K, the proactively put me in an exit row on the new aircraft, but a bunch folks either ended up like you or staying in Washington involuntarily.

As the CSR correctly stated, the contract of carriage entitles you to a seat on the plane. I've been bumped from first or business to economy due to operational problems and my only recourse is to wait for a flight with the appropriate class of service or fly what they offer. As with the flight I mentioned above, such usually comes with compensation. I was compensated for the above flight with a 350.00 voucher, which was more than I paid for the trip. So, they're not completely without empathy  

Bottom line here. In todays travel environment, expect the unexpected, know your options, and be proactive. Also, anything you can do to get one or more family members elite status with one or more airlines will work for you. It's a totally different overall travel experience as an elite traveler, and, with airlines increasingly charging for services like baggage, and exempting their elites, cost effective. In your scenario, today, if one person was a mid-level elite on United, your whole family could have avoided baggage fees. Crunch the numbers. That's a lot of mai-tai's  Also, you get better seating options and more 'service' when things happen. 

Lemonade


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## sfwilshire (Jan 14, 2010)

We had a similar issue with our disabled child, who was 8 or 9 at the time. It was on one of the commuter flights. Maybe Mesa Air. Gate agent was rude and would not try to modify any of our seats. No two of the four were together. We just wanted someone close (within a row or two) to my son. Not even necessarily next to him. 

Gate agent insisted flight attendant would take care of it. Flight attendant rudely refused to be bothered. Told us to ask other passengers ourselves. I did not feel comfortable doing that. Can't even remember now who finally took action, but we wound up across the aisle and two rows back from our son, which was close enough to be acceptable on the short flight.

Sheila


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## camachinist (Jan 14, 2010)

A tip, when traveling with a companion with special needs, whether that be an elderly pax who needs assistance or a special needs child, is to call the airline and talk with special services. 

Sheila, you'll be happy to know that both Delta and UA have pretty much killed their contracts with Mesa and Mesa filed for bankruptcy protection as a result. I won't miss them at all


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jan 14, 2010)

camachinist said:


> My bet is you had an equipment swap.


That's exactly what it sounds like to me, as well.  They don't scramble seats just to be perverse. Trying to deal with all of those issues disrupts things greatly.

On a somewhat related note, if you are traveling with someone else but the tickets are booked differently (i.e., they have have different confirmation codes, you need to call the airline and be sure that they codes are linked in their reservation system.

Otherwise, if there is an issue in which they need to reassign seating, they will not recognize that the two itineraries need to be kept together.


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## camachinist (Jan 14, 2010)

> On a somewhat related note, if you are traveling with someone else but the tickets are booked differently (i.e., they have have different confirmation codes, you need to call the airline and be sure that they codes are linked in their reservation system



Yes, on UA, this is known as 'linking the PNR's', which essentially means that a cross-reference to each separate PNR (passenger name record) is notated in the  "UF" (United Field) of each relevant PNR so a GA or CSR who is in FastRes  (I think also FastAir) can see the 'link' and operate appropriately. Acting on it is human however, not automatic, so the pax still needs to be proactive, even with linked PNR's. Most airlines are similar, though the terminology may be different.

Just like with timesharing, knowledge is power


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## LisaRex (Jan 14, 2010)

Hate to break the news to you, but we had the same thing happen to us for our July '08 trip to Hawaii -- and we'd booked directly through Delta at around 7 months out.  Of course, our seats were selected at the time of booking.  Turns out they can change even confirmed seats on their whim, which I discovered when I went to print out our boarding passes.  I called Delta and the agent said there was nothing they could do at that point and we'd have to wait til we got to the airport. 

When we got there the next morning, a few other people had the same issues, causing the poor gate agents to scramble around trying to move people around -- it was like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. We were eventually moved so that our two girls (both teenagers) were seated together and my husband and I were seated together.  Not ideal, but what can you do?

Had I not been able to sit next to my husband, and raise the arm to my seat, and use his shoulder as my pillow, on that long flight, my comfort would have been greatly diminished.  (Hey, I wonder if it was HIM who called and moved the seats around!)

I will also say that on a recent Continental flight, my seatmate and her husband were separated by a few rows.  When I realized it, I offered to change seats.  They were grateful and everyone was happy.   

Personally, I'm beginning to see the wisdom of Southwest's no seat assignment model.


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## Bill4728 (Jan 14, 2010)

Personally, I would have gotten on the plane on early boarding for elite mebers and family with small children. Picked the seats I wanted and not moved. The flight attendants could handle the mess. I never would have waited for the gate agents to fix this problem.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jan 14, 2010)

camachinist said:


> Yes, on UA, this is known as 'linking the PNR's', which essentially means that a cross-reference to each separate PNR (passenger name record) is notated in the  "UF" (United Field) of each relevant PNR so a GA or CSR who is in FastRes  (I think also FastAir) can see the 'link' and operate appropriately. Acting on it is human however, not automatic, so the pax still needs to be proactive, even with linked PNR's. Most airlines are similar, though the terminology may be different.
> 
> Just like with timesharing, knowledge is power



Flying on Alaska, once the records are linked the reservation system seems to recognize they belong together.  For example, when doing a web check-in, inputting one confirmation code retrieves both reservations for check-in. I've also done a first-class upgrade using my Alaska FF status, and my wife (who is not an elite), traveling on separate but linked itinerary, was upgraded along with me.


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## Amy (Jan 14, 2010)

Bill4728 said:


> Personally, I would have gotten on the plane on early boarding for elite mebers and family with small children. Picked the seats I wanted and not moved. The flight attendants could handle the mess. I never would have waited for the gate agents to fix this problem.



I would never had considered this as an option!


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## Luanne (Jan 14, 2010)

Bill4728 said:


> Personally, I would have gotten on the plane on early boarding for elite mebers and family with small children. Picked the seats I wanted and not moved. The flight attendants could handle the mess. I never would have waited for the gate agents to fix this problem.



Oh yeah, I bet that would go over really well with the folks whose assigned seats you took.  I wonder if the flight attendants would have the authority to have you removed from the plane completely?


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## Twinkstarr (Jan 14, 2010)

LisaRex said:


> Hate to break the news to you, but we had the same thing happen to us for our July '08 trip to Hawaii -- and we'd booked directly through Delta at around 7 months out.  Of course, our seats were selected at the time of booking.  Turns out they can change even confirmed seats on their whim, which I discovered when I went to print out our boarding passes.  I called Delta and the agent said there was nothing they could do at that point and we'd have to wait til we got to the airport.
> 
> When we got there the next morning, a few other people had the same issues, causing the poor gate agents to scramble around trying to move people around -- it was like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. We were eventually moved so that our two girls (both teenagers) were seated together and my husband and I were seated together.  Not ideal, but what can you do?
> 
> ...



I don't care who I book, I check my reservations frequently and once able to get seating those too(I'm fly out of DTW, so NWA frequently and you don't get seats until 90 days out). 

Delta did something like that to us, last summer to SLC, but I caught it. It's usually a equipment change that causes the problems. 

We had a gate agent with NWA in DTW a few years ago go out of her(and got another family really mad) to make sure my special needs son sat with me. Probably because we didn't throw a fit at the counter,and we did volunteer to get bumped. This was an Easter weekend flight to West Palm Beach. A equipment change to a smaller plane perhaps 3 months out caused the trouble.


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## scrapngen (Jan 14, 2010)

thheath said:


> In reading your post I didn't read anywhere that you had assigned seats with seat numbers when you booked with the third party.  I only read you "thought" you had seats together.
> 
> If you did then shame on Delta if not then shame on you.
> 
> ...



Sorry, poor choice of words on my part.  Aaahhh, this is why my initial post was long. I did not want confusion of people thinking I had simply forgotton to verify my seats at purchase time. 
 I had several emails with the same specific seats assigned over the course of 3+ months. That is why I "thought" I had my seats assigned. Then went to print out boarding passes 24 hours before and found different - very bad - seat numbers. Started calling, etc. and told only could be fixed at the gate. Do not know other families exact confirmations/lack of but all had made arrangements months prior and thought they, too, had properly assigned seats. 

I am not a flying newbie


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## camachinist (Jan 14, 2010)

Luanne said:


> Oh yeah, I bet that would go over really well with the folks whose assigned seats you took.  I wonder if the flight attendants would have the authority to have you removed from the plane completely?


This actually happens more commonly than perhaps realized. I've encountered self-upgraders, seat poachers and, of course, legitimate mistakes. 

For me, it's simple; if someone else is in my assigned seat and cannot produce a boarding pass to support where they're sitting, I offer them the seat for fifty dollars cash; otherwise, I just push the flight attendant call button above their head and make their lives much more interesting. To me, it's about revenue and getting paid for being smart. No animosity at all. And, yes, I've done this, in business class with businessmen. Amazing how none of the suits want to pay the guy in the baseball cap the fifty bucks and, grumbling, return to their (middle) seats. 

I've only seen one altercation over a seat  (not me) result in an arrest, and the FA indeed had airport police come on board and remove the man forcibly. She consulted with the captain first and he called the police. We were asked to fill out an incident form, which I glady did. That and drunks are not welcome on my aircraft


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## Rose Pink (Jan 14, 2010)

LisaRex;847611...
Had I not been able to sit next to my husband said:
			
		

> I bet if you raised the arm to your seat and put your head on the shoulder of the guy (or gal) seated next to you, they'd volunteer to exchange seats with your DH.


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## Jimster (Jan 14, 2010)

*Delta*

My only comment is why is this entitled "Delta Seating -Be warned?"  I see no need to limit it.  Retitle to "Delta-Be Warned"


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## scrapngen (Jan 14, 2010)

Ooops, might be a newbie poster, though. I inadvertantly sent the last post before finishing. 

Meant to add, I don't really take offense at being told "shame on me, not the airlines" if I goofed. But I've been flying to/from Hawaii yearly for many years and my family is spread out so plenty of other flying as well. I've flown Hawaiian, United and Northwest for those Hawaii vacations and never had anything like this happen (often booked third party, because I shop around)  - hence the warning to others out there who may encounter similar difficulties with Delta or any other company as things in the flight industry keep getting worse for the traveller...

I have occasionally been reassigned seats, but usually in the same pattern as my originals (2-2 or 3-1) Appreciate the insights of fellow travelers re: change of aircraft, etc., and probably should try for some status on a particular airline. Just won't choose this one...


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## camachinist (Jan 14, 2010)

> I had several emails with the same specific seats assigned over the course of 3+ months. That is why I "thought" I had my seats assigned.



OP, assuming you had the airline record locator, you can check loads and seat maps online. When my wife flew Delta, I always did this, since I was checking airline stuff a couple times a week anyway. Delta is known for 'changing' things, but monitoring the record (a quick screen shot takes ten seconds) goes miles to 'fixing' it, IME. Sometimes it takes pushing, but, for a family, it surely would be worth it. The key is catching it early.

On UA, something as simple as a five minute schedule change can result in a complete re-juggling of seat assignments by the computer. Happens all the time, usually a month or two out from flight, but can happen closer in too.

In your case, if it was an equipment swap, little could be done; often, such things are last minute/day and the airline's computers don't have any allegience in keeping people's seat assignments.

I've flown next to kids whose parents are elsewhere in the cabin a number of times, even in international business and/or first. So far, haven't had a bad seatmate yet. The ones behind, kicking my seatback, OTOH


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## Talent312 (Jan 14, 2010)

I'm simply gonna say that, whenever I've requested something from a gate agent, from changing seats to getting _any_ seat (due to a cancelled flight), they've always been helpful, even Delta agents. Pehaps I've been lucky.


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## bluehende (Jan 14, 2010)

Bill4728 said:


> Personally, I would have gotten on the plane on early boarding for elite mebers and family with small children. Picked the seats I wanted and not moved. The flight attendants could handle the mess. I never would have waited for the gate agents to fix this problem.



The only thing this would have accomplished was get you arrested.


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## scrapngen (Jan 14, 2010)

Believe me, I will be so much more careful/diligent in the future and will use your advice as well - I don't think I have ever flown delta before as they either didn't go where I wanted to go, didn't have good rates, or other companies that I like had similar rates, etc. 

United to Hawaii used to be on the bottom of my list because I don't like routing through SFO or LAX from Seattle, and they always seemed to have mechanical problems and run late (this was mostly in the 90's as that's when we decided to stick with other airlines for Hawaiian trips) 
Now Delta takes it's place as last resort only...

BTW - friends flew the newest non-stop flight from SEA to LIH on Alaskan. It landed to refuel in California without letting passengers off, and ended up getting to Hawaii the next day (!) many hours (plus a day) after it was supposed to. Their excuse was a storm, but other planes didn't seem to have that issue in the same time frame! Their more expensive direct flight actually lost them a day in Paradise 
Personally, I have not had issues with Alaska, but haven't tried to fly to Hawaii with them. I do think some of the people on that Delta flight back were placed on Delta from an original Alaskan flight if I remember correctly, so maybe that also impacted seat assignments. But whoever told me that was not one of the families with kids.


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## camachinist (Jan 14, 2010)

OP, if you consider UA to HNL, try IAD/DCA to ORD and ORD-HNL on UA1. They occasionally fly 747's on this route and IMO it's one of the best uses of a CR1 (regional upgrade) or miles there is. The normal 777's aren't bad but F on the domestic 777 is nothing compared to C on the old or new 747's. Anyway, keep in mind for the future. Great flight to sleep on. I flew ORD-NRT last November on the way to SIN and slept for almost 10 hours. 

OH, scrap that.... you're in Washington state.... a little out of the way!


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jan 14, 2010)

scrapngen said:


> BTW - friends flew the newest non-stop flight from SEA to LIH on Alaskan. It landed to refuel in California without letting passengers off, and ended up getting to Hawaii the next day (!) many hours (plus a day) after it was supposed to. Their excuse was a storm, but other planes didn't seem to have that issue in the same time frame! Their more expensive direct flight actually lost them a day in Paradise



I've done the direct SEA-LIH run a couple of times without any problems or issues.


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## LisaRex (Jan 15, 2010)

Twinkstarr said:


> I don't care who I book, I check my reservations frequently and once able to get seating those too(I'm fly out of DTW, so NWA frequently and you don't get seats until 90 days out).



As do I.  In fact, they changed equipment and/or departure times a half dozen times in the course of those 7 months, and I had to call Delta to re-book the seats each and every time.  (They've since changed that and you can do it online.) Having to babysit my itinerary is one of my major complaints about Delta.


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## Carolinian (Jan 15, 2010)

Delta certainly has the reputatiion on FlyerTalk as the airline most likely to make changes in your flights, and therefore possibly scramble your seat assignments.  All do it to some extent, but Delta seems to be by far the worst.


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## yoohoo (Jan 15, 2010)

About four years ago we took my family to China via Hong Kong on NWA.  We changed planes in Minneapolis and Tokyo.  There were two flights leaving about half hour apart going to Tokyo.  The one daughter coming from Chicago was put on the earlier scheduled flight.  The rest of us coming from St. Louis were put on the later scheduled flight.  The later flight had a tight connection in Tokyo.  We were concerned that we on the later flight would miss our connection and having the one daughter going to Hong Kong by herself.  As it was the later flight took off with the earlier flight still at the gate.  We made it to Tokyo on time and the one daugher's flight was a few minutes late.  To NWA credit they did hold the Hong Kong bound flight waiting for all the passengers from the other Minnespolis flight.


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## hibbeln (Jan 16, 2010)

This has happened several times to us.  Most notably was on an overseas (!) flight from Paris to Detroit (yep, long haul). Luckily (!) our boys are experienced travellers and were 12 & 8, so they were able to stick the 12 and 8 year old together near the front of the plane.  I was literally 30+ rows back.....my husband was even further back and on the other side of the plane.  But the boys did well together.  BUT.....I kept thinking what if they had been a tad younger or not experienced travellers?

We've had the same experience where we booked FAR in advance, had confirmed seats, then in the last month before the flight the flight number changed or there was some slight change in the flight and our confirmed seating was CANCELLED.  When I called I was told "it's too close to the flight to book your seats"....upon explaining that I HAD seats, but the flight was changed and I'd lost them they then (nicely) tried but there weren't even 2 seats together to put the kids together so they said "you'll have to sort it out at check-in or on the plane".

Delta/Northwest (and Spirit) generally leave the last 2 rows of the plane (i.e. the ones that have seats that don't recline and smell like the toilet) unassigned to accomodate family seating "whoopsies". 

I've learned that since my kids do fine if they are just together, to say "Just put the two boys together somewhere" and my husband and I take scattered seats because there are generally (as the OP noted) several families in line looking far more desperate than we are to get together.

I think a lot of the problem stems from last minute flight changes that merge flights to save $$$ but involve reshuffling seats.


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## Carolinian (Jan 16, 2010)

My favorite Delta shuffle happened years ago when I was a regular Delta flyer and it was my airline of choice, back before even SkyTeam.  Then DL had a partnership with Austrian Airlines, Swissair, and Singapore Airlines called Global Excellence Partners.  I was connecting in Zurich and had arranged an overnight connection (I loved the old days when one could easily overnight in Vienna or Zurich on a flight back from somewhere else in Europe).  When I got to the airport for the TATL leg, I was told that there had been an equipment change to a smaller plane, all seating assignments were wiped out, and there were not enough seats on the new plane for all the passengers with tickets on the original flight.  Unfortunately, I was unable to take the compensation and hotel room offered to stay another day and night in Switzerland as I had a matter I had to get back for.  I did get an upgrade, however, and that was nice!

But that was in the days before Rob Borden started making DL customer-unfriendly.  While customers cheered when the www.saveskymiles.com effort finally succeeded in getting DL to fire Borden and roll back his ''reforms'', we ended up with Jeff Robertson instead and Jeff Bob, as he is sometimes called on FT, has been far worse than Borden.  Borden monkeyed with the earning side of SkyMiles while Jeff Bob monkeyed with rewards side.  The latter has a far worse impact on customers.


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## ciscogizmo1 (Jan 16, 2010)

This is definitely my biggest fear is getting separated.  Anyways...  we did an overseas flight from SFO to Paris and I was amazed on how forceful the airline stewards were.  There were many families separated on our flight.  I didn't think we were separated but the steward did.  We were one row apart and the steward said that was unacceptable.  I thought she took  it to extreme but it could have been because of my kids ages.  Anyways...  she started moving people around.  She didn't start with our family as we weren't separated by much but she did with other families that were on the other side of the plane.  She basically told people they had to move to accomandate a family.  But the way she said it was more like YOU WILL MOVE end of disccussion.  One person did protest but she didn't back down either.  She rearranged everything.  I really think airlines need to take accountability.  I'd gladly move to help a family but I know there are many stubborn seat hounds that won't because they feel like they own that particular seat number and row.  We were on Air France.


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## thheath (Jan 16, 2010)

ciscogizmo1 said:


> This is definitely my biggest fear is getting separated.  Anyways...  we did an overseas flight from SFO to Paris and I was amazed on how forceful the airline stewards were.  There were many families separated on our flight.  I didn't think we were separated but the steward did.  We were one row apart and the steward said that was unacceptable.  I thought she took  it to extreme but it could have been because of my kids ages.  Anyways...  she started moving people around.  She didn't start with our family as we weren't separated by much but she did with other families that were on the other side of the plane.  She basically told people they had to move to accomandate a family.  But the way she said it was more like YOU WILL MOVE end of disccussion.  One person did protest but she didn't back down either.  She rearranged everything.  I really think airlines need to take accountability.  I'd gladly move to help a family but I know there are many stubborn seat hounds that won't because they feel like they own that particular seat number and row.  We were on Air France.



Your last 2 words stay it all...Air France.


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## sfwilshire (Jan 16, 2010)

camachinist said:


> A
> Sheila, you'll be happy to know that both Delta and UA have pretty much killed their contracts with Mesa and Mesa filed for bankruptcy protection as a result. I won't miss them at all



I won't miss them either. Some of the commuter lines actually seem friendlier than the mainline Delta, but I never like Mesa.

Sheila


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## Liz Wolf-Spada (Jan 18, 2010)

We had a similar situation on American, and we booked directly, months early. Told us we couldn't make seat assignments but would have to do it at the gate. Well, same thing, we weren't sitting together, which wasn't such a biggie, but again, families with small children all separated all over the plane. This was LAX to Honolulu. The passengers did some shuffling around, with no help from personnel to solve the problems. I will never book a flight again without a seat assignment. Coming back they had a US serviceman say goodbye to his wife and 3 year old and they didn't have have the wife and baby together. We were able to move around and get them together. Outrageous and stupid on the part of the airline. What if there was a problem, even turbulence and you've got little kids all alone all over the plane?
Liz


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