Hi all,

Taking our first international flight with our 5-month-old, CMH-ATL-EZE, leaving this Saturday. We bought the baby a lap infant ticket back in June and requested a bassinet at that time. (Delta wont guarantee a bassinet, just puts in a request which may be fulfilled or not.) I'm wondering if anyone has any recommended strategies for getting the bassinet - like, would it help to check-in online exactly 24h in advance, get to CMH early, get to ATL early (like change our flight or try to get on standby), call 24h in advance, or what? 3 delta phone reps I think are saying the bassinets are assigned at the ATL ticket counter (although they all are a little vague about the whole topic, one didnt even know whether you could reserve vs request one). I went to CMH today to speak to a live person at the ticket counter and she said I should call day-of the flight (or maybe 24h ahead) and they could secure one for me then. And, they wont assign up bulkhead seats in advance, which is where the bassinets go. Anyone know what the real story is? I would entertain buying a ticket for her now if I had a clue that the bassinet wasnt going to be available. BTW, the plane is a 767-400ER both ways.

Alternatively, any strategies for getting an empty seat to plop the car seat and baby? A Delta phone rep re-assigned our seats a few weeks ago when we discovered hubby had been moved away from me and baby and got the 2 of us seated with an empty middle seat, although if you were to try to book a ticket on our flights now it looks like almost every seat on the whole plane is taken, incl the empties between us. Are the seat maps on delta.com true in terms of how full the flight really is and what seats are actually taken?