I will be traveling tomorrow on a transatlantic trip on a DL 767. The flight is sufficiently full that no premium seating options are available (in fact, no seat assignments are available at all except for one lone center).

Since I never sleep on planes but rather work throughout the long-haul trip, it is critical to me to be somewhere where I can work without a passenger in front being able to recline into me, making it impossible to work on laptop. Legroom, although always welcome, is not as critical a consideration.

With other carriers who I more often use for these trips, I am able to contact the elite desk the day prior to travel and they can generally get a bulkhead seat released for me, if no exit rows, etc., are available. I have just spoken with Delta with regard to tomorrow's travel, and they were quite insistent that this is never possible on Delta - that those seats may be assigned only "at the airport". This seemed to contradict a previous emailed contact I had from them - in which they said essentially "please call the elite desk and I am sure they can work that out for you". The phone agent was rather unclear (and could not be pinned down) as to whether "at the airport" meant at the airport upon checkin for the (Delta North) connecting flight, or at the gate at the international gateway.

Can anyone tell me what REALLY are the rules for release of those seats? Can they really not be assigned by phone, email, etc., under any circumstances? Can they be assigned at ANY Delta airport check-in within a certain time frame prior to the flight in question? If that cutoff is, say, 24 hours, does that mean that I could do that when at the airport tonight, for tomorrow's flight? Can such requests be handled in the Delta lounge, rather than at the check-in out front?

Failing getting that bulkhead or the possibility of getting really lucky and scoring an operational upgrade (Business is empty, I note), are there viable options for upgrading on the spot at the airport, whether paying or using miles?

Thank you for your assistance with these questions. The answers aren't significant only with respect to tomorrow's travel. The viability of getting guaranteed seating in a position where I can work will be a major factor in deciding if it is practical to fly Delta on future trips of this nature (and I go back and forth fortnightly).