djk7

I've just managed snag a couple of low BE awards from MCO to LHR for October, and had some of questions:

My outbound only has a 58 minute connection in ATL, I assume this is legal (over MCT), but is tighter than I would like. When I booked it, I thought I could SDC if needed, but after reading stickies and searching, it looks like SDC is not valid on an international itin before the international legs have been flown. So now I'm hoping for a schedule change to lengthen my connection or shorten it enough to be less than MCT. In the latter case, I assume DL will allow me to change to an earlier flight even if there is no low award availability, is that correct? If I see low first availibilty between now and October for an earlier flight, I assume I would have to pay $150 fee (each) if I call up and ask to be changed, is that correct or is there some basis for having that waived (no status)? The MCO-ATL flights run every hour, so as a last resort I plan to get to the airport a couple hours early, and if my flight shows any delay, ask to move to an earlier one.

This one is no biggie, just wondering if this is common. When I booked the tickets, my wife and I had seat assignments in different rows, scattered about the cabin seemingly at random for every segment. My profile preference is aisle, and hers isn't set. Since the seatmap was almost wide open on all segments I was able to pick seats together (taking FEBO into account), but it seems odd they were assigned like that.